


When Lives Collide

by Quinis



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Chuck (TV), White Collar
Genre: Bryce Larkin is Neal Caffrey, Dick Grayson is Bryce Larkin, Dick Grayson is Neal Caffrey, Gen, The Batfam left in the dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-05-14 09:36:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 25,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14767088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quinis/pseuds/Quinis
Summary: Neal had a feeling this day would come. The day the bat arrived in the FBI office. However, it didn't expect it to go the way it went. An ex-CIA agent chooses the very same time to make an attack towards him, by taking El Burke. Once all his bridges are burnt, what will be left of Neal?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: Here's a story written in response to a prompt and has got out a little out of hand. I'm up to three chapters in writing for it (the Bryce and Dick parts of Neal haven't had much time, we're very white collar focused in these first chapters). There are some adjustments to the prompt. The Bat family don't know about Neal and Bryce but, at the same time, Dick didn't disappear for long stretches of time while being Neal and Bryce (and he didn't spend those four years sitting around in prison. Officially he did but unofficially, he didn't).
> 
> From Mystery0028:
> 
> _Could you write a story like Many names,Many lives,One person but Bruce and the rest of the Bat family do not know that Dick joined the CIA and try to find him when Dick "disappears" when he goes undercover as Neal and they do find him and are super disappointed that Dick was "breaking the law" behind their backs, but then something happens and Bryce's cover as Neal is blown and everyone finds out that Dick joined the CIA with the name Bryce and that he was just undercover as Neal Caffery._

 

 

Neal should have known that it would come up at some point. Peter cornered him with a disappointed frown and the file on the case they were working.

"Out with it," he said.

Neal kept his smile and shrugged, uncertain of what Peter wanted him to say.

Peter passed him the file and tapped a name which turned up on the first page.

Bruce Wayne. Businessman. Rich. Had a painting stolen from his personal office the week before.

"Wasn't me," Neal said. "I'm not crazy enough to steal from Bruce Wayne. They say he has the Batman in his pocket."

"Myths and legends," Peter grumbled. But he seemed to believe Neal when he said he didn't do it. "Put together a list of people who have the skill to pull this off. And don't think I haven't noticed that you're avoiding the guy. Why?"

"Again, he has Batman in his pocket." Sort of. Neal knew the truth. He had known it since he was ten years old, descending a hidden staircase into a cold and damp batcave. "I'm not getting anywhere near someone with those kinds of connections."

"The Batman," Peter said in a deadpan. "Really?"

"Aw, afraid of the big bad bat?" Diana teased.

"Yes," Neal responded instantly. "What self-respecting thief wouldn't be? I didn't get as far as I did by antagonising vigilantes."

"But the FBI was fair game?" Peter questioned in an amused tone.

* * *

Neal faked sick the next day. He had narrowed down a list of suspects and then narrowed it down some more until they had only one name on the list. It was perfect because Mozzie had known the guy and also didn't like him enough to protect him. With Mozzie's information, they would be able to gather enough evidence to make an arrest.

So, Neal faked sick to avoid the office and the likelihood that Bruce Wayne would be there.

He forgot to account for bat-paranoia. If he had, he would have locked himself down inside one of Mozzie's safe houses and fudged the data on the anklet. But, since he forgot, it meant he was home when the Batman and his birds came knocking.

It happened quickly. There was a swoop and the door slid open, Batman strolling in like he owned the place. He took up so much of the room, even in the evening light, that Neal almost missed Red Robin and Robin following him in.

"What the-" And that cursing gave away Red Hood's presence. Neal sighed and placed the knife down on the table. "You're the guy who forged the Atlantic Incorporated bonds? YOU?" Red Hood looked between Batman and Neal. "Are you seeing the same thing I am?" he demanded of Batman.

"Red Hood," Batman said, in the 'be silent' snap of voice.

Neal stared at the Batman. "What do you want? I solved the case of who took your painting. On that note, why did you even care about it? It was no Raphael or Picasso and you could have gotten it back without involving the FBI."

"There's due process. The painting was stolen and people noticed. If I hadn't called the FBI, it would have been noted and would have cast suspicion on me."

"Why are you answering his questions?" Red Hood huffed. "I thought we came here to question Neal Caffrey on his involvement."

"Grayson wasn't involved," Robin growled at Red Hood.

"Sure. And he didn't forge bonds and end up in prison for, how long did you end up in prison?"

"Depends. Officially, I served four years and gained another four after breaking out, which I'm now serving on anklet and with the FBI. But, technically I didn't serve my sentence."

"Well, yeah. We would have noticed if you vanished for four years," Red Robin pointed out.

"Duh," Red Hood added with a motion that suggested he was rolling his eyes under the helmet. Neal didn't really feel like sitting through a family fight. He picked up phone and wallet.

"Look, are you going to stay or are you going to patrol?" The family stared at him.

"I think we have a lot to talk about," Batman said in a gravelly tone. "Like why you're playing Catwoman on the side."

Neal was insulted. "Seriously B? I'm not 'playing Catwoman' and I'm sure she would be just as insulted at the comparison as I am. We have different targets and MOs. Aren't you supposed to be a detective?"

"Ouch," Red Robin said before he could help it.

Neal smirked and walked right out. He hopped into a taxi and got a lift to Peter's house. Batman wouldn't dare expose himself by breaking into Agent Burke's place.

* * *

Peter's phone buzzed. He let it ring out since he was in a meeting with Bruce Wayne in order to get everything ready before the criminal's trial. Neal had actually come to the meeting, although he was regretting it. Bruce kept glancing at him, to the point where Peter had caught onto it. Neal knew he would have to wave off Peter's digging over the next couple of weeks now.

The phone buzzed again. Neal hoped it was just someone attempting to get through, believing that Peter had just missed the phone the first time.

"Sorry, I'll just be a moment," Peter said, pulling the phone out of his pocket and turning away. Something was wrong. "Who is this?" Peter demanded to know. He pulled the phone away from his ear and Neal's heart sunk when he caught a glimpse of the name on the phone screen.

El's name. Peter clicked the 'loudspeaker' on and a familiar voice filled the room. It was not El's voice. It was a male one which was tense but also eerily calm.

"Hello FBI. Here's the deal. My men have stormed the business of Elizabeth Burke, Agent Burke's wife. We want a trade. Neal Caffrey for Elizabeth Burke and all her workers."

"Explain what you want with Neal," Peter growled.

"That is of no import. Just know that Elizabeth will be killed if you do not comply within the hour."

"That's not exactly possible," Bruce yawned. Neal glared at him, silently telling him to not get involved. Batman or not, Bruce didn't know who he was dealing with. "I do think Agent Burke will need a little more time to drive Neal over there."

The person paused. "Fine. Two hours. That is all the time I will allow." He hung up before they could trace the call.

The room was silent.

* * *

"I suppose we owe you for buying us more time," Jones said to Bruce.

"Not really. I suppose this acts as a kind of lesson to criminals who get people upset with them."

Neal's hand clenched. He could not believe Bruce had just said that. "A place of business has been invaded, innocent people have been taken hostage and all you can think about is that it's a lesson?"

"Neal!" Peter barked. He was the only person would Neal would listen to right now. After all, Peter was the only one who had more to lose than he did.

Neal took a deep breath. He could fight B over this later. For now, he needed to help El.

"Make the trade," he said to Peter.

Although Peter hesitated, he did remind Neal that the FBI didn't make deals with kidnappers. Especially ones who held up places of business with armed teams.

"He'll kill her, Peter! Make the trade!"

Peter dug in his heels. "No." He looked over at Diana. "Watch him. He's not to leave this building."

Diana nodded. She knew, just as Peter did, that Neal was likely to go trade himself over if they stopped watching him for even a moment.

"This case isn't in our jurisdiction," Peter said softly as he went to the connecting door which lead to Hughes' office. "I'm going to see if Hughes can pull some strings for us."

The room was still silent when Peter left. It was like the agents didn't have a clue of what to do. Bruce was watching everything go down while subtly contacting the other members of the family and giving them the details. But Neal knew they had no idea who they were dealing with. He did.

"Diana, I'm going to go get something from my desk," he said. Thankfully, she didn't stop him. It was well within his plans for her to follow him down as he popped open his drawer and then pulled out the false bottom. He saw Diana's look of surprise as he pulled out a badge and burner phone.

"I have strings to pull as well," he informed her, passing her his badge. She stared at it for a couple of moments, eyes wide. After a moment, she opened the badge and scrutinised it. Her eyes scanned it over and over, looking for the smallest imperfection which would prove it fake. She couldn't find one.

Neal was on the phone to General Beckman, the woman currently in charge at the CIA. She was not happy. She also suggested that Neal get in contact with someone who could protect him when this whole thing blew up in his face.

"Call Chuck, got it," he said as he hung up on her. He was one of the few people who did that to her, since he knew she didn't really care for small talk.

"Who's Chuck?" Diana asked.

"He runs Carmichael Industries," Neal responded. However, he didn't quite have the guts to call Chuck. After all, Chuck still thought he was dead.

Email. Email was better. What better way to announce to his old friend that he was still around and kicking? He contemplated using one of their old codes as a password into the email before deciding that there was no reason not to.

Diana frowned at him, perhaps getting a sense of his plan.

"The badge isn't a fake, I assure you."

"That means so much," Diana responded sarcastically. "And is this Chuck person going to protect me?" she questioned.

"Good point," Neal mused. He tucked a hand into his pocket, pretending to think for a moment before tossing knock out gas into her face. It was a bat recipe which worked quickly. He gently laid Diana's sleeping body on the ground and bolted.

A call to Mozzie got him a cab. While in the cab, he sent off the email to Chuck and a text to his brothers. After all, they were in the city and maybe could help.

Neal tussled up his hair, breathing a little easier since he didn't have it had it be so neat for once. He hated it but was used to styling his hair nicely for work. He pulled off his suit jacket and unbuttoned his shirt.

"I don't appreciate the show, Neal," Mozzie grumbled from the front seat. It was all in good teasing though. "This is a taxi, not your bedroom."

"Come on, Moz. It's not like I haven't changed in stranger places," Neal responded as he pulled out a black turtleneck which Mozzie always stored in his taxi. It was Neal's escape car of choice. It came complete with scissors which Neal could use to cut the anklet off. He tossed it out the window.

"Are you running?" Mozzie asked curiously, teasing tone gone.

"I might have to," Neal sighed. "But we have to help El first."


	2. Chapter 2

 

The area outside El's office had police cars outside, no doubt alerted to the hostage situation by the FBI. In Neal's opinion, the more people the better. It would help mask his approach to the targets inside.

Mozzie followed him as he ducked into an alleyway across the street.

"What do you plan to do?" Red Hood questioned.

Mozzie gave a quiet scream as he realised who was standing behind them. Neal didn't even turn around, too busy mentally mapping out the area.

"Break in, take out Shaw and his men before letting the police outside take over to save El."

"So you do know the guy who attacked that place?"

"Careful, Hood. You're starting to sound like B."

Mozzie swallowed as Red Hood grunted in annoyance. He whined, "Neal, why are you antagonising the mob boss?"

"Mostly because I knew him back in short shorts."

"The short shorts were not my choice," Red Hood insisted, hood looming over Neal.

"So you say," Neal shrugged. "You can't deny that Red Robin fixed the uniform up when he had it. So, we're going to arrest an ex-CIA agent who went rogue."

"CIA? Great, a hot-shot with an inflated ego," Red Hood sighed.

Mozzie laughed. Neal frowned. Mozzie gave him a look which said he fit right into that category. Neal was certain that Red Hood would think that as well, which is why he didn't mention being CIA to the vigilante mob boss.

"Red Robin sent me the floorplan," Red Hood announced. He described the layout. They would have to either find a way to enter from the second floor or from somewhere in the back. Both were difficult to achieve while the police were outside the building. But Neal had an idea on how they would manage it.

"Mozzie, do you have my jumpline?" he asked. Mozzie nodded and passed Neal the grappling gun from the back of the cab. "Any cleaning uniforms in there?"

Mozzie was unimpressed with the question. He always carried cleaning uniforms. Not only was it another job he did on the side but it was also the best way to get in anywhere. Red Hood followed Neal into the building next to El's. Dressed as cleaners, they climbed up to the second floor, pushing a cleaning cart as they went.

"This is stupid," Red Hood muttered.

"You only think that because you're going in without your masks," Neal countered. After all, he had gotten used to working without a mask. People would hit blocks if they tried to find him based on his physical appearance. Neal was conman and Bryce was a spy so both kept their identities locked up tight.

As for Dick Grayson, Bryce and Neal were identities easier to locate for a reason. No one looked deeper than the spy or conman.

* * *

Neal grappled across with Red Hood right behind him. Then he started taking out Shaw's men one by one. It was a job made easier by having people he trusted at his back. Red Hood took out man after man as well and could take care of himself.

Shaw had barricaded himself in El's office but he was expecting Neal to jump in. Neal's plan was a little different and, surprisingly, Red Hood liked it.

Red Hood took off his jacket and passed it to Neal. They did a trade. Neal's turtleneck for Red Hood's jacket. Wearing the turtleneck and his pants, Red Hood mussed up his hair, pinched his face to make it appear flushed and panicked, started tearing up on cue and popped his head cautiously through a door.

"El, boss?" he said in a soft voice, one Neal had never heard him use before. He knew Jason had tried out acting in high school, before everything happened, but he hadn't known it was con-levels of good.

Shaw growled for him to get inside, waving his gun around. Neal crouched at the door, listening as Jason mumbled and squeaked, appearing terrified of the man with the gun and his boss.

El seemed to be playing along following Jason's tale about being one of her terrified employees who was just trying to do the right thing and help her. Neal listened closely for one of the cues which would tell him which plan Jason was able to go with. Jason would give a different signal for each manoeuvre.

"Look, I-I'll be your hostage instead!" Jason said loudly, as if pleading with all his life.

Neal had a moment of disbelief; had that plan really worked? All it had involved was Jason circling Shaw until Shaw was standing by the door. Neal opened the door and tackled Shaw around the waist, slamming him to the ground. Jason grabbed the gun as it dropped and pointed it right at Shaw.

Neal slammed Shaw's head into the ground until he was knocked out. He ignored the shocked look from El and the way Jason's mouth was hanging open.

"This guy escaped from CIA custody, has tried to destroy the world as we know it and also attacked some good friends of mine. He's not dead but he can't be kept aware."

"You know I'm normally the one all for violence but, why didn't you use those knock out pills like you used on that female agent?" Jason asked.

"How do you know about that?" Neal questioned.

"B is there, remember? He told me as soon as they discovered her unconscious body."

"She'll be fine," Neal countered. "And I used my last ones on her."

El shakily stood up and Neal quickly moved towards her, holding out his arms to catch her if she fell. He didn't want to touch her, in case she was angry with him.

"I want to know why this man attacked me and my employees," El demanded to know, looking Neal right in the eye.

Neal swallowed. "Probably because of me. He and his wife were in dangerous work and she was killed. He blamed a friend of mine for her death and then almost ruined hers and her husband's career, before torturing and attempting to kill her while her husband was supposed to be unable to do anything to save her. He has a list of crimes which is long and horrible." He stopped there, not wanting to freak El out any more than he already was. Even Jason was looking to the unconscious body on the floor, wondering how Neal managed to attract a person like this. "I'm sorry," Neal said quietly. He carefully moved to hug El, ready to abort the moment she tensed up. However, she returned the hug. "I'm leaving so this should never happen again."

El gripped his arm. "What do you mean, you're leaving?"

Neal smiled. "I refuse to stay and put you and Peter in danger again. You don't have to worry, the FBI probably won't let him chase after me this time." Especially since he knew Diana would have remembered the name on the ID he showed her. There was no reason to track down a CIA agent.

* * *

As soon as Mozzie buzzed him, Neal left El with Jason and made his way quietly out of the building. He hopped into the taxi, which was twice switched for another car as they drove through the city.

"Are you going to be okay?" Mozzie asked as they arrived at the airport.

"I'll be fine," Neal admitted. He ducked into a room, changed into a white shirt and sunglasses before walking out, now feeling a little more like Bryce Larkin.

"Well, I'm coming with you!" Mozzie insisted. "There's no way I can leave you by yourself."

Bryce grinned. "Thanks Moz." They got on a plane heading to California. New jobs and new lives awaited them there.


	3. Chapter 3

 

_One day after the arrest of one Daniel Shaw._

The anklet had been cut and Neal had gone missing. El's statement put Neal at the scene, painting him in a rather heroic light. Even if Peter thought Neal had been crazy to jump in like that. He was grateful but he couldn't help thinking of 'what ifs'. What if Shaw had decided to kill El? What if Neal had been killed instead? He couldn't shake the feeling of uselessness.

Now Neal was gone. Peter had checked at June's. He had waited at home. He waited at the FBI the next morning. Finally, he had to admit that Neal had run.

Why would he? Diana told them about Neal knocking her out but, more importantly, of the ID he had handed her. A CIA ID. If it was real then they were both on the same side. There was no reason to leave them. Even so, Peter was stuck waiting for Hughes to check his sources and find out whether the ID and the name on it were real or not. It was the only lead they had that wasn't the usual roadblocks and wanted signs.

* * *

_Three days after the arrest of one Daniel Shaw._

In a New York hotel, near the top floor, Bruce Wayne stood before his sons with the look that had made many a villain and hero cower. However, Tim was typing away on his laptop, Jason was cleaning his guns and Damian was scrolling through images on his phone, completely ignoring him.

"Boys, one of our own is missing, you could seem a little more concerned," Bruce tried saying.

Damian huffed, Jason rolled his eyes and Tim kept typing.

"Dick'll turn up," Jason pointed out. "After all, he decided to vanish on his own."

* * *

Elsewhere, El was not surprised when she woke up partway through the night to find Peter's side of the bed empty. He was sitting at their dining room table, looking over information about Bryce and Neal.

She sighed at the sight of the big map, pins all over it. It seemed Neal had probably filled more than one passport in his time. However, even though her husband was the one who had followed Neal for three years before finally catching him, it seemed like she understood the conman more than him sometimes.

"You're thinking too large," she said. "Do you really think that Neal would have left the country?"

"There's no way to tell," Peter grumbled. "I have recent records of Bryce Larkin overseas in Budapest, Rome, Hong Kong, Kyoto, and more. Here's working on the west coast and the east at the same time. It seems like someone went to great pains to make sure I wouldn't be able to find him. If he's even going by Bryce Larkin."

"Did you try looking for Dick Grayson?" she asked, recalling the theory Peter had spoken about they day before. All they needed was Bruce to confirm it and Peter would have more pins to add to the board.

"Gotham. He might have gone back home," Peter mused, looking at the place on the map where Gotham was. It was an island-like area just off the coast further south. It was less than four hours away by car, ignoring crossing the small area of water between the mainland and Gotham's boundary. "I really hope not. The place is a crime hotspot."

El hoped that Neal hadn't gone there too. Because she knew her husband would go running headfirst into one of America's most dangerous cities hunting for him. She really didn't want Peter to be in more danger than necessary.

There had to be another way to find Neal.

* * *

_Four days after the arrest of one Daniel Shaw._

Bryce Larkin woke in the Queen sized bed of his new two bedroom apartment. His roommate was Mozzie, who clattered around in the kitchen and bathroom and had probably been up for hours already. Bryce was not looking forward to work.

He pulled on slacks, his work button up shirt and the grey tie. The shirt was good quality, the tie too, but the pocket protector with ID in it made it feel cheap.

"I have no idea how Chuck has done this for years," he sighed as he walked out into the kitchen. Mozzie handed him a plate of scrambled eggs.

"At least you're relying on all your California caches to make ends meet."

"I thought the job paid you enough," Bryce mused. After all, he was fine living off his Buy More wage. It was easier since Mozzie was also making money in the Buy More, plus whatever he made on the side.

"Maybe it pays you enough but we can't all live out of cereal boxes, Bryce."

Bryce stared at the cereal box in his hands. It was one of the colourful kinds of cereal which had many different tastes.

"Maybe we should start," he mused. He glanced at the Russian surplus laptop sitting at the edge of the table. Mozzie already had three of those stored away; one at the Buy More, one hidden away in his California safe house and another one in his bedroom. He really didn't need another.

Mozzie quickly and flatly dismissed the idea. Then he started talking about how he could use the computer parts the Buy More had stocked away to build a supercomputer.

"Please don't build a supercomputer," Bryce sighed. Being in the Nerd Herd was boring but building a supercomputer would just attract attention.

"I think I'll ask Chuck. He'll probably be interested," Mozzie said instead.

Bryce shrugged. "Go ahead." It was too early for this. He felt like his was channelling his little brother, Tim, with this need for coffee to feel awake in the mornings.

* * *

Bryce walked into the Buy More and right down into the staff room. There wasn't really anything in his locker but he liked just sitting around until he was due to start.

Chuck found him with his feet up on the table and a sketchbook in hand.

"What are you doing?" he questioned.

"Drawing, Boss."

Chuck's ears went pink at the title. "Seriously? You're calling me Boss now?"

"Ask anyone here who's in charge and they say your name. Or Morgan's but I'm not calling Morgan 'Boss'. He might not hate me anymore but that doesn't mean I like him."

"Bryce," Chuck sighed. "I know you can get along with Morgan. You've been doing it so far. Besides, you're here for the foreseeable future so you might as well make friends."

Bryce thought about that. He didn't plan to leave anytime soon but he was also comparing everything here to working at the FBI. The Buy More just fell short when compared to the place Neal had come to see as a home.

"Maybe later," he said. He'd probably return to Gotham soon anyway. Once he had given Bruce enough time to calm down after learning about his secret CIA life and that he had actually finished college, just not in Business like Bruce had wanted.

"I never thought this would be how we ended up working in the same company together," Chuck mused. Bryce couldn't help laughing at that, as he compared the dream they had in college to the now.

"I never thought I would be working in a Buy More, that's for sure."

"I'm sure it's not as exciting as working in the FBI," Chuck mused.

Bryce wasn't so sure about that.

* * *

Bryce found Mozzie tapping away on the computer. Rather than working on work, Mozzie was playing minesweeper.

"I didn't know these computers had minesweeper," Bryce mused.

"They don't," Mozzie responded. "Skip had it installed."

The tall, pale and red haired nerd herder shied away from Bryce's stare. He slipped behind an aisle and began making his way towards the back room.

"I like that kid," Mozzie said. "He had a brilliant idea for getting back at Large Mart."

"What did Large Mart do now?"

"They paid a kid $10 to kick down our display outside. You know that took Casey all morning to put out."

Bryce had a feeling this had less to do with Casey's work being destroyed and more to do with Mozzie getting involved in the Buy More and Large Mart rivalry.

"Casey!" Bryce called, spotting the other agent standing over in the BBQ section. Casey walked over, face stormy as usual. "Mozzie is planning to get back at Large Mart because they kicked down your display." Talk some sense into him, went unspoken.

Casey stared at Bryce for a moment before looking at Mozzie. "You are, huh? Whatever you need, I'm in."

Bryce's mouth dropped open. Casey was really going to do this? "Isn't it a little petty?"

"A little pettiness livens up the hours here," Casey responded. He clicked his pricing gun. "As does having the right equipment."

Casey showing off the inside of his pricing gun, which hid a real gun, was the least surprising thing of Bryce's new job at the Buy More.

"I need a turtle," Mozzie mused.

"A turtle?" Casey questioned.

"A turtle. And a cowboy hat."

Casey thought for a moment before nodding. "Consider it done." He walked off, presumably to collect the items in question.

"A turtle?" Bryce questioned, for completely different reasons.

"Trust me. This'll be one for the books," Mozzie said. "It's my best scheme ever. Now, here's what I need you to do..."

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >For anyone interested, the prank involved Casey walking around Large Mart in a cowboy hat, distracting attention from Bryce. Mozzie bribed him with art supplies to not only forge a netbook which doubled as a hide-away for a turtle, but one which matched the ones Large Mart sold. They basically switched out the netbook display model for one with a turtle in it. It caused a bit of customer chaos when they realised.


	4. Chapter 4

 

Chuck was surprised when Bryce dropped into the seat across from him with a salad wrap in his hands. Bryce's lunch break was just about to end so where had he been?

"You know you can refuse service if you're on break," Chuck said. It was policy mostly because the employees would do it anyway. If they had policy to fall back on, sometimes the customers didn't get as angry. Sometimes.

"That's not what happened," Bryce said. Chuck was curious. Bryce commented, "the FBI was exciting at times but in a different way to this place. Who knew working at a Buy More could be this interesting?"

"Do I want to know?" Chuck questioned.

"It involves a turtle, a cowboy hat and a netbook," Bryce said. After a pause, he added, "and Large Mart."

"You know what. For legal reasons, I don't want to know," Chuck responded.

Bryce snorted a laugh.

* * *

Also four days after the arrest of one Daniel Shaw.

Peter turned up on the doorstep of the hotel room where Bruce Wayne was staying. It was Bruce's second youngest, Timothy, who opened the door. The young adult's eyes were red and sunken.

"Sorry to wake you," Peter said.

Tim looked confused. "I wasn't sleeping." Peter bit his tongue to keep from saying that maybe he should have been. "How did you get past the lobby?"

Peter held up his FBI ID. "But in all honesty, no one really asked what I was doing and I already knew which room Bruce was staying in."

"Why do you want to see Bruce?"

"It's about Neal."

"Figured it out, did you?" Tim opened the door to let him in. "He's in the study."

Peter didn't get rich people. What kind of hotel room had a study? Why would anyone need a space this big for a holiday or work trip? Sure, he had stayed in large hotel rooms but they weren't the size of a house and they made him feel more awkward than comfortable.

Bruce Wayne was typing on a laptop at a desk which looked 100 years old and yet shiny new.

"Neal Caffrey is your eldest, Dick Grayson, isn't he?" Peter said. "Or he pretended to be at some point but then, I'm not sure how you managed to be in the same room as him if that was the case."

"Oh, Neal is most certainly Dick," Bruce responded. "I'm surprised you figured that out." Why did they keep saying that? Neal wouldn't have been surprised.

Peter shrugged. All the hints were there. "Did you know he joined the CIA as Bryce Larkin?"

"Until recently I did not." Bruce's frown said he didn't approve of the decision. It was interesting, meeting Bruce Wayne like this. There was no sign of the stupid playboy the press not-so-affectionately referred to as 'Brucie'. Instead, Bruce had a fierce and hard blue gaze which seemed to look through Peter's every thought and movement, analysing and scrutinising.

No wonder Neal was so good at reading people.

* * *

Peter could tell that Jones and Diana were surprised when there was a knock at the door. Peter was surprised as well, but for a different reason. They were surprised because of who came in. Peter was just surprised that Bruce actually came. After all, the Burke's townhouse was a step down from the fancy hotel.

Spread out on the table was all the information on Bryce Larkin. Most of it was redacted or files covered in black rectangles hiding 'sensitive information'. There were, however, a couple of photos from Bryce's time at Stanford, information on his fake job at the bank and a news article detailing his death at the hands of bank robbers. Diana had commented that it was ironic. It wasn't one of Neal's top deaths. Peter had a soft spot for being mauled by sharks, possibly because it was a time when Peter knew Neal hadn't actually died from the moment he received the death certificate. Not even Bruce seemed shocked or impressed to see Bryce's death notice.

"He was actually shot," Bruce commented. "This aligns with a time Bryce Larkin was marked deceased within the CIA. I'm guessing this was the cover up."

"A legitimate reason for someone to die suddenly, because they couldn't say how it really happened?" Diana commented, thinking it sounded legit. "The CIA is involved, we can't discredit anything right now."

"We're all going to sound like Mozzie by the end of this," Peter pointed out with a heavy sigh.

"On that note, has anyone had any luck trying to find the little guy?" Jones asked.

"No."

"We'll find Neal long before we find Mozzie," Diana pointed out.

"Mozzie is much better at hiding," Peter pointed out. "Also," he added a file on Dick Grayson to the pile. "This is everything I could find on Dick Grayson, Neal's birth identity as far as we can tell."

Bruce reached for the file, flipping through it. He made a couple of impressed huffs as he read.

"It's fairly accurate," he said as he continued looking through the information. Peter was glad to hear it. It hadn't been easy to gather information about Dick Grayson. It was mostly information from the government, the internet and news reports. The easiest time to track had been the time when Bruce had suddenly left to travel the world or something. During that time, Dick Grayson had stepped up into Bruce's role in Wayne Industries. That included all the media roles as well.

"It seems that Neal didn't actually spend any of the four years of his prison sentence in prison."

"A CIA cover-up?" Diana suggested. Jones looked a little surprised at that suggestion.

"Possibly. I can't think of anyone else who would help Neal out of prison while also making it look like he was still there."

"I can think of people," Bruce mused. He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Clark. There was going to be a Justice League meeting about this one.

"Care to share?" Peter asked.

Bruce declined. Instead he looked over their information and supplied answers to some of their questions, like how he didn't notice that his son had become CIA and a infamous conman.

"All my children travel a lot. It's difficult to know what they do when they leave. Especially since they've gotten very good at hiding their activities from me." Bruce was glad that the FBI seemed to think that Neal's abilities in conning and thievery had more to do with his past in the CIA rather than anything he might have learnt while under his care.

"All your children?" Jones questioned.

Bruce nodded and started listing off where everyone was. Sure, Tim and Jason and Damian were currently in the city but that was because they had been free. Before that, Jason had been somewhere in Gotham's slums, Tim had been on the coast and Damian alternated between Metropolis and Gotham depending on whether he was hanging with his friends or staying at the manor that night.

Duke was still in Gotham, he didn't like to travel much. Cass was in Asia somewhere, last he had heard from her, she had been in China.

Bruce could see the information dump getting to the agents. They were trying to remember everything he said but, it was a lot of information which their personal opinions were getting in the way of memorising. It was difficult to recall who was where when they were offended by the very idea that Bruce didn't know where his children where or the idea that these teenagers and young adults could go wherever they wanted with little issue.

Peter however, tuned most of it out. Information about Bruce's sons could be located later on. While something Bruce mentioned here could become important later on, Peter doubted it since the businessman was obviously trying to overload them with more information than they could process. It would be better to ignore it for now and keep his wits about him. If something really did end up being important later, Diana or Jones could inform him.

Although, he wished Bruce would stop with the games and help them find Neal.


	5. Chapter 5

Mozzie adjusted his hat. "Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes the FBI to locate Bryce?"

Casey grumbled under his breath. He didn't care about Larkin right now, not when the guy sitting across from him was cheating. Somehow, the hat Mozzie was wearing obscured his face from the cameras. "Why are you wearing that ridiculous hat?"

"Hey, it's a classy hat!" Bryce countered. After all, it had been one of his hats before Mozzie modified it.

"Whatever Larkin. Take your feet off the table."

Bryce huffed and kicked his feet down to the floor and closed his sketchbook.

"You react to that but not the FBI finding you?" Sarah questioned. Bryce shrugged. Their relationship had changed since she had chosen Chuck over him. Bryce didn't mind, Chuck was the better guy. However, it did mean that he felt closer to Chuck than her, despite all their time together as agents.

"You know they've tried to access your information, right?" Chuck pointed out.

"I bet they found a lot," Mozzie said with a pointed look in Bryce's direction. "After all, you handed them an invitation into your life the moment you signed up to work for them."

"Thank you for that reminder Moz but I think I'm fine," Bryce said.

"Considering that Bryce Larkin probably isn't your real name, of course you think you're fine with it," Chuck commented.

Bryce's mouth dropped open a little bit. How did Chuck know?

"Come on Bryce, I've known you for ages. Plus, Sarah didn't join the CIA with her birth name."

"Nah, there's another reason you know," Bryce muttered. "You must have hacked something."

"More like, I don't think the CIA was paying for your $400 jackets in college."

"How do you even know what my jackets cost?"

"I know what they didn't cost. They weren't cheap."

Bryce and Chuck were glaring at each other. Mozzie picked up Bryce's pencil and tapped his arm with it.

"You're an idiot sometimes," the little guy said. "Chuck guessed based off those points and your reactions confirmed it."

"Good thing you only act like this around Chuck," Sarah mused, "otherwise you'd make a terrible spy."

Bryce ran a hand through his hair.

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

"Nothing," Chuck said. Although, Bryce noticed that Chuck said it over whatever Casey had been about to say.

But, that was a Chuck answer through and through. After all he had married Sarah and helped her to build a life under that name. "I really should have expected that."

"Do you want to tell us anything about yourself?" Sarah asked.

Bryce mused on that for a moment. There was an itch he wanted to scratch and he knew that he would probably have to come clean one day about his past. But that day wasn't today.

"I'm a gymnast. In fact, I would like it if you would allow me to add a proper gym to this base."

"We have a gym," Casey pointed out.

"You have a training mat and a couple of machines for strength," Mozzie said. "That's hardly a gym." After a moment he added, "are you taking requests? I have a couple of things I'd like to ask for."

"No," Sarah and Casey said at the same time.

* * *

Bryce grinned at the gym he had installed. He now had some bars, ropes and a set of rings to practise on. Mats had been properly installed for safety.

"Time to take this place for a test run," he grinned to himself, rubbing his hands together. It had been a while. As he warmed up, he thought about New York. He hadn't been able to have a gym for Dick's exercise. Instead, he had to arrange times to go off anklet and hit up one of Dick's old bases for exercise. He wondered what Peter would think to see him. Bryce started by climbing the rope and then swinging from one to the next. Would Peter expect these skills of him? Neal had been a great thief for a reason. Would Peter just think of this as an extension of his thief skills?

The thoughts he had slowly vanished as he worked his frustrations and questions out on the bars and then the rings. He finished with a couple of flips on the mats and stretching on the floor.

"Did you enjoy the show?" he asked Chuck, having noticed his old friend watching during one of his twists on the rings.

"Yes. I never knew you could move your body like that. That's like, Olympic level stuff right there."

"Not surprising. I am an Olympic level gymnast. Just, you know, not able to compete without spoiling all my secrets."

"I feel like I've learnt more about you in these couple of days than I did in years of college with you," Chuck sighed.

"Or we spend years apart and now you're learning about the person I am now."

"So you couldn't do those tricks in college?" Chuck commented with a smile, already knowing what Bryce's answer was.

"Of course I could. But where was the gym equipped for an acrobat? Most gyms only have machines and weights, no bars and ropes. You know, the stuff for keeping or building one's figure."

"And the pool. You spent a lot of time in the pool."

"Keeping one's figure Chuck." Not exactly true but a distracting joke nonetheless.

"I thought that was more for showing off one's figure?"

Bryce laughed.

* * *

Bryce stood atop a hotel in Burbank. He was inside the city where the tall buildings were and far from the apartment and the Buy More. This was where the non-spy related crimes would take place. Finally, after a couple of weeks of being unable to go out, he was finally able to dust off the suit and fight crime again. Mozzie had gone out, probably to finalise his hideaways here.

The mask tickled against his skin but he knew from experience that the unfamiliar feeling would disappear after a couple of hours.

"Time to make a patrol route," he mused to himself. He jumped from the roof, grabbing onto a nearby streetlight and swinging off it. Just like the parallel bars. He landed on the street and started walking down into the alleyways, taking note of where fire escapes were.

He stopped someone trying to steal a car and scared off a mugger. All in all, it was a good night. He made his way back to the apartment and slipped in through the window. The apartment was silent. There was no way to know if Mozzie was back but Bryce didn't care too much. Mozzie wouldn't ask questions.

* * *

Bryce did a double-take when he saw the paper the next morning. Mozzie was sitting at the table and was reading it without a care in the world.

"How is that front page news?" Bryce questioned, pointing at the old picture of Nightwing from back when he was in Gotham. The article was called something like 'flying in bat wings: Nightwing!'

"Slow news day? Government conspiracy?" Mozzie suggested. Bryce shook his head. Maybe he should just ask Chuck. Chuck could hack the newspaper and find out what their other choices were.

Not that he didn't mind being front page news but his bat family was going to track him down now.

* * *

In a hotel room in New York, a computer beeped with a message for its owner. A phrase the owner had been looking for had triggered. The result: a Burbank newspaper.

* * *

Up in a floating satellite, Batman stood before select members of the Justice League. Superman floated just before him. Wonder Woman stood off to the side. She had already been informed of the subject of the meeting and was only there because Batman trusted her judgment. Both Flashes had been called, Barry Allen and Wally West.

"This is an odd assortment," Barry commented as he took in all those gathered. "Is there a particular mission you've called us here for?"

"No," Batman responded. He motioned to the table and chairs he had set up. He took the first seat, ignoring the looks the other heroes sent to each other before they too took a seat at the table.

"Okay, B. Why have you called us?" Superman questioned.

"I have crossed paths with a spy and a conman recently and I wanted to know if any of you had heard of him before."

"Aren't spies and conmen the same thing?" Green Arrow questioned.

"What kind of spy are we talking?" Superman asked. "DND, ANI, ISI, MI6, CIA?"

"CIA," Batman interrupted.

Wally let out a low, impressed whistle. "What'd you do to catch the eye of the CIA, Bats?"

"I haven't caught their eye. They've caught mine."

"Don't go stirring up trouble with the CIA," Flash said.

Batman stared at the group, eyes trailing from one side of the table to the other.

"The agent in question is Bryce Larkin. Also known as Neal Caffrey."

Wally's expression widened in surprise and then tightened as he looked away from Batman's gaze. Flashes never did learn how to lie properly.


	6. Chapter 6

 

A cold chill went down Wally's back as the Batman got up and swooped down behind him.

"Care to explain, Flash?" Batman growled.

Wally couldn't help putting his hands up in surrender. Barry stood up, chair scraping across the ground.

"Leave my nephew alone Batman! He didn't do anything."

"He knows-"

"Because he asked me for help!" Wally insisted.

"Him and Donna," Wonder Woman said before anyone else could say anything. The whole room went quiet, all eyes on her. She sat tall and chill in her chair and kept her gaze on Batman. "When you informed me of the reason we were meeting up, I asked Donna about it. Like any good sister, she moved to help her companions when they asked."

"Why?" Batman growled. The answer he received didn't explain why Dick had joined the CIA, but it explained a little of Neal's creation. In fact, it seemed like Wally didn't know about the CIA part of it as he only mentioned helping Dick because Dick had asked. It was very informative, even if Wally spent most of the time complaining about how Dick had him wear a 'magical' necklace to change his appearance.

"Why are you asking now though? Neal Caffrey's been around for years," Wonder Woman said.

Batman explained about how he had recently crossed paths with Neal and how it had ended with Neal on the run and with Batman looking into what he had been doing.

"Contrary to what most believe, I do not keep tabs on my son at all times."

The group shared looks. Batman would let Dick get away with staying off the grid. He tended to indulge his children in different areas, depending on the child. For example, Jason got away with causing more destruction than anyone else under Batman's eye, including members of the Justice League. Tim got away with drinking unhealthy amounts of coffee, having an unhealthy diet overall and working all hours. Damian got to keep more pets than any boy his age he should have, unless living on a farm.

"Okay," Wally said, having calmed down a little now that the risk of Bat interrogation had lessened. "Why is it important now?"

"Because, Neal Caffrey is also Bryce Larkin. A man who went to college-"

"Whoo!" Wally cheered before being silenced by a glare.

Batman continued, "and somehow ended up in the CIA."

"CIA? Dick joined the CIA?" Wally said, baffled. Sure, Neal had been created for a case but Wally had always assumed it to be a case of the masked nature and not a spy case. Or maybe it was case of the masked nature and Dick just happened to have another identity who was CIA. "Why would he not mention this?"

"Probably because Bryce Larkin has a habit of getting himself into dangerous situations." Batman pulled out the main file. He had hacked the CIA to get a proper copy from the desk of the general herself. Batman knew better than to go for the official report and instead focused on other files containing Bryce's name. Files like the medical records showing now. Bryce should have died. Had died, according to reports and that news article Agent Burke had located.

"Dick needs to know that hiding this is not okay. I'm going to hunt him down."

"Got it," Wally said. "I'll let you know if I see him."

"Agreed," Wonder Woman said.

* * *

Chuck sighed as a camera down in Castle turned black, no longer transmitting images. He the customer on the other side of the counter was having trouble with a computer tower. Chuck quickly processed the tower into the system, dismissed the customer with a smile and a 'pick it up in two days' and turned to Bryce, who was playing on the computer next to him and leaving most of the customers to him.

"Look, I don't mind you telling your friend how to get into Castle, but could you at least let him know that I get twitchy when the cameras go down?"

Bryce looked up from his game of solitaire and wrinkled his brow. "I never told Mozzie how to get into Castle. I thought you did." Bryce had only told Mozzie about being a spy so Mozzie would know why they were going to California and not overseas. Also because Bryce wanted Mozzie to hear it from him and not the FBI grapevine.

"I only agreed to give him a job on the floor," Chuck said. "You know, because he's your friend and he likes the Russian surplus."

"More like he agrees that Roark brand anything is trash and you'll hire anyone with that opinion after what he put your family through."

"I guess so. I hired you," Chuck countered cheerfully.

"You put me through a gruelling test of sale goals."

Chuck had indeed. On one hand, it had kept Bryce's mind of whatever he had left behind. On the other, Morgan had suggested it because he wanted to make Bryce suffer just a little before he forgave him and also because the added sales from having an ex-conman and spy on the sales floor would give them a boost.

Chuck couldn't argue against that. Bryce had exceeded all expectations. There was one clip, Morgan was tempted to use it for training, where Bryce helped three customers almost at once. All three made purchases.

The first came through and Bryce helped guide them towards HDMI cables. The second came in looking at laptops and Bryce swooped in to show them three in their price range with the specs they needed. He gave them time to think while going back to the first guy and processing the sale for the cable. Then it was back to the second customer, where he convinced them to make a purchase with a smile and helpful words and then stacked a laptop bag and wireless mouse on top of it. While getting the laptop box from the back, he also made a sale. Going over to get it, he guided a lovely old woman towards the USBs. Coming back, he gave her a rundown as she had time to think about what she wanted and in what price range. He ended up directing her to the SD cards, better suited to her purposes. He processed the sale for the laptop and bag and then directed the customer to the checkout to pay.

Chuck got tired just watching him. Bryce almost seemed to bounce from customer to customer, making them all think he had all the time in the world while also solving their problems quickly.

No one wanted to bring up the day they had Bryce work the returns desk. Bryce was exhausted by the end of the day and it was no surprise. He had managed to survive without calling a manager for anything outside of authorisation for a return; not that Morgan would have helped even if a customer wasn't listening to Bryce and demanding to see him.

Mozzie had spouted something about how aliens were already among them and Morgan had hired him on the spot.

"I probably shouldn't leave Morgan in charge of hiring," Chuck commented.

Bryce shrugged. "He hired Mozzie. Not to mention, he's somehow able to keep Mozzie. I really thought being a taxi driver was the only legal job Moz would stay in."

* * *

Mozzie came dropped into the seat next to Bryce. He swung around a few times, ignored the line of customers at the desk; there were three people waiting, and rolled closer to Bryce.

"So, did you hear about Skip? He's got a date tonight."

"That's nice," Bryce muttered as he fiddled with a phone battery. There was a screw loose behind it, he was sure of it.

"He asked me to take his closing shift. I'm passing that responsibility to you."

Bryce paused and looked over at his co-worker. "No way. You agreed to it."

"Yes. Because I knew I could get you to do it."

Bryce snorted. Yeah right.

Mozzie pulled out a USB. "I managed to get a recording of Chuck's wedding. Sarah looks wonderful and Chuck looks like he's going to cry. I figured since you weren't able to be there-"

"I'll cover closing," Bryce stated quickly, reaching for the USB.

Mozzie pulled it out of reach. "After you do the job."

Bryce spent the evening wondering how agreeing to take this shift in return for a video made him feel dirtier than anything illegal Mozzie convinced him to do. But he really did want to see what Chuck and Sarah's wedding had been like, since he hadn't been able to go.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: So I did something stupid on Friday. I spilled water on my laptop (the place where I do all my typing). I was working Saturday but, when I turned it on, the keyboard was dead. When you type as quick as I do and your fingers aren't always picked up by touchscreens, you need a keyboard. Thankfully, my brother is letting me use his computer to type on. Unfortunately, he doesn't have microsoft word and what he does have... edits word files strangely and also doesn't save them. So, I've imported this chapter into Google Docs, continued it there and put my laptop in to be fixed today (today being Tuesday. Places were closed yesterday for a city-wide holiday). I will work to make sure there aren't any delays but it's difficult to know what will happen (I didn't plan on this happening - it's a terrible start to the school holidays).

 

El didn't know what to expect when she received a call from an unknown number. The person on the other end introduced himself as someone who had been in the building with her when Shaw had attacked. He wanted to meet.

El responded with her husband's number, telling the stranger to contact him first. Especially if he had information which would help them find 'the hero who saved the day'. Those were his words, grumbled sarcastically into the phone like this person wasn't too fond of Neal.

Even more reason to not trust him.

A taxi pulled up on the side of the road El was walking down and she wouldn't have paid it a second thought, except the person who got out grabbed her arm. His hair was red and so was his shirt and pants and she was certain that she had never seen him before.

"Look, hear us out," he said. El immediately hung up the phone and began dialling 911.

The call didn't connect. The man winced as another voice said from inside the car, "like we'd let you do that."

"What do you want?" El demanded to know.

"I'll tell you, as soon as you get in the car."

"It concerns Neal," the red man said as he pulled her towards the car.

"I think you have the wrong Burke," El said.

"Really?" the person inside the car got out. He was tall and broad, making her feel small as he glared down. She recognised him! He was the guy who put on an act in front of Shaw. He hadn't seemed so large back then though. "You don't care about him?"

"I never said that! I'm just not looking for him. My husband is FBI and has far more resources than I could ever have. I'm better leaving it to him."

"Even if I said I know exactly which city Neal's living in?"

* * *

Chuck was surprised to see Bryce on the doorstep. Bryce rarely visited, preferring to either have Chuck over or to just talk and hang out at work.

"Okay, there's a thing I should probably tell you," Bryce said.

Chuck opened the door and let his friend in. Bryce paced back and forth as he spoke.

"So I agreed to take a shift for someone in return for a video of your wedding." It was only then that Chuck noticed the disk in Bryce's hands. Bryce lightly lifted it. "Yeah, I know. Who uses disks these days?"

"Who gave you the recording?" Chuck questioned.

"Mozzie. I have no idea how he got it though. But, there were snippets of everything which happened afterwards." Bryce took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I wasn't there, man. You probably could have used the help. I mean, I know you had a Russian army backing you up-" Chuck laughed at that. Casey said the sight of the Russians falling from the sky still haunted his dreams. Mostly he said it before mentioning that he shot them all like one of those games Chuck liked.

Chuck interrupted to ask Bryce where he had been during the wedding.

Bryce had to think. It was after Bryce had 'died' and Neal had taken a couple of sick days. Right, it was possibly that time when Scarecrow had gassed an entire division of a company in Gotham. It hadn't been Wayne Enterprises but one of their competitors. Either way, Bruce had called everyone back to help track down the cause of the attack and to keep people calm. Or it could have been the Joker attack in lower Gotham.

"I think there was a gas attack in Gotham, I can't recall exactly. I'm sure I was in Gotham at the time at least." And that it had something to do with gas because he had spent a lot of time complaining about how the gas mask didn't go with the Nightwing uniform and talking about how he would design it. Robin had then actually designed a gas mask like that for his last birthday.

"Gotham? Like 'Batman and Robin' Gotham?"

Bryce laughed at Chuck's grin. Trust Chuck to skip over the 'city with a very high crime rate' part. Maybe giving Chuck the Intersect had given him more of a defence against tough enemies, a thus less worry about it, than the average person.

"I'm serious Bryce! You know Nightwing was spotted here!"

"Chuck, you're probably one of the few people who actually follow Gotham vigilantes without having lived in Gotham."

"You know me, I love the hashtag 'only in Gotham'."

"The what?" The next hour was spent reading stories about people who lived in Gotham. When asked how he found this website, Chuck couldn't remember. It was possible that someone going into the Buy More mentioned it once and he decided to check it out.

* * *

Morgan paced back and forth across the line of employees. When he opened his mouth, he spoke loud and clear, making some of the weaker employees wince and look away. "So, who's going to be working in the hole?"

"Can I make a nomination?" Bryce said, raising his hand half-way. "Anyone but me."

Morgan paused and spun on his heel like a villain who had finally caught the vigilante causing them trouble. "Or... I can pick you!"

"I did the hole yesterday," Bryce pointed out. "And for safety reasons and reasons of sanity, no employee works the hole twice in a row."

Morgan's eyes narrowed. He knew that Bryce was right; although it was an 'unofficial' rule Chuck had instated back before the spy stuff. It was old enough that everyone treated it as official.

"It's good that I have a back-up plan," Morgan stated. He brandished his hand up and pulled the cover off the big thing behind him. It was a wheel with everyone's name printed on it. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for 'Wheel of Un-fortune!' Thanks to Fernando for the suggestion." Morgan motioned towards the round kid-like adult who grinned at the sight of the wheel.

Chuck raised a hand. "Uh, Morgan? What happened to the roster?"

"It got lost. I've got my best guys on it."

"Aren't we your best guys?"

"I see my name on there," Casey growled.

"I'm also against Casey working the hole. He'll kill someone."

"No more than you could," Casey pointed out to Bryce. Bryce glared back.

"I have 'tact'. I also know not to go shooting at random things that make me mad."

"Ladies, ladies!" Morgan interrupted, getting between them. He jumped a little closer to Bryce as Casey growled. "Just let me spin the wheel and find out who's on."

"It was Cecil," Fernando whispered to Bryce. "Cecil was on the roster today. But Cecil's sick so Morgan needed a better way to pick someone so we put this together."

"This is better?" Bryce questioned, although he wasn't complaining. It was more entertaining than just getting someone to cover for Cecil.

"Mozzie, my man, spin that wheel!" Morgan said.

Bryce realised that Moz had been standing next to the wheel the whole time. This was probably where Morgan had gotten the idea to put on a show.

The wheel spun and the employees started doing their thing. Chuck crossed his fingers. Skip muttered 'not me, not me, please not me,' under his breath. Casey cracked his knuckles.

"And the loser is..." The wheel clicked slowly. Fernando tensed, fat cheeks going red as his name ticked slowly over to the next. "Bunny!"

"Yay," Bunny said dully and devoid of emotion.

Bryce breathed out the breath he had been holding. Sure, he could do it but he didn't want to deal with angry and screaming people.

"Good luck, Bunny," he said to the emotionless woman standing two people down from him.

"I'll be fine," she droned. She would be too. Chuck whispered to Bryce that Bunny had a fool-proof method for avoiding the customers; she used the phone, spending hours chatting to whoever she called or whoever called her.

"As the secret owner of this location, I don't like that she brings up the phone bill," Chuck sighed. "But I can't really complain. I've worked the hole as well. One does whatever it takes to get through it."

Bryce thought back to his time in the hole. "As long as Mozzie doesn't get it through his head that it's good training for conmen, we'll be fine." Chuck raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Morgan used it to test me and you know it. It took more skill than I've ever had to call on during the course of a CIA mission." And if Mozzie figured it out, he was doomed. Even if it wasn't as tough as some of the FBI-sanctioned cons and the things he had done as Nightwing.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I have a new laptop but setting it up is a longer process than I remember. There's so much to remove, disable, add and update that I still haven't finished getting it all done. So I'm still working from Google docs but there should be no risk to updates now since the laptop is functional. (And boy has this week been an emotional roller-coaster and not in a good way).
> 
> This chapter is a day late because I couldn't update. AO3 was having issues.

 

 

Mozzie slipped into the break room with a Subway sandwich. Bryce groaned at the smell which filled the room. It made his stomach rumble even though he didn't like Subway.

"Isn't your break in 20 minutes?"

Mozzie shrugged. "It's not like anyone will notice. I already fixed the three computers sitting in the back. I can just say it took longer than it did."

Bryce sighed. Mozzie wasn't wrong about that. He was faster taking apart computers and putting them back together than everyone else. Years of lockpicking skills made his hands accurate and quick. Plus, his perfect recall meant that he didn't have to spend time memorising where everything went the way Bryce and the others did. Except maybe Chuck. Chuck was also able to look at a computer and pull it apart without any obvious memorisation tactics.

"Anyway, I've been thinking about the perfect exchange."

Bryce sighed. "Moz, no."

"Hey, it saved me once. Anyway, this Buy More. It has cameras."

In spite of himself, Bryce slipped into the game easily. "There are certain staff who would notice the moment you entered with a weapon, plus it would ping down in Castle." The security scanners at the entrances and exits also scanned for weapons, secretly. "What about somewhere private to do the exchange?" This was fun, not that he'd admit it out loud.

"Home Theater Room," Mozzie responded. "It's a makeout spot too. Chances are, if there are cameras, no one's watching them unless they have to. As long as we don't act strange, they'll never check the cameras."

Bryce thought about that. "I would have picked the video wall. It's out in the open but the TV screens can obscure cameras at times and people are so distracted by them that you can perform the switch without anyone really paying attention."

"True. And it's not like people will look at you strangely if the object is an odd shape. Since they'll probably just assume that you're returning something."

"Or you've brought your computer in for repairs," Bryce responded. "You could hide all manner of things inside a computer tower, even without taking computer components out first."

They kept planning and talking about how the perfect exchange might go down in a Buy More. Bryce even added the challenge of other Buy Mores on top of it.

It was a surprisingly good place for an exchange, even without the spy base underneath.

* * *

The door opened and the man came running up to the middle counter. Sarah jumped to the side as he almost collided with the counter, getting right in Chuck's face and interrupting their conversation.

"Pleaseyouhavetohelpme!I'vedonesomethingstupid!" the crazed red-haired man rambled.

"I'm sorry?" Chuck questioned, having caught only a couple of words.

"What stupid thing have you done now?" Bryce asked, sliding over. He grinned at the stranger.

"Neal! Or..." Wally checked Bryce's nametag. "Bryce. Sorry dude!"

Bryce shook his head in a fond manner. One would think that having super-speed would keep Wally from making mistakes like that.

"Focus Wally. Stupid thing?"

Wally gasped and teared up. "I dropped my phone in the sink and it got wet! Now it won't turn on! My whole life's on there!"

Bryce stared because he doubted that. It was more likely that Wally just lost some kind of high score in whatever app he was currently addicted to and was just being dramatic about it. "Have you taken out the battery?"

Wally shook his head. "I just dried it off and came running!"

"To the Burbank Buy More?"

"I knew you were in town and I figured, who better to fix my phone?"

"How did you know I work here?" Bryce asked. By now, Chuck had logged the job and was looking over the phone. First things first, take out the battery and dry off the unit.

"Lucky guess?" Wally suggested with a smile and a shrug. Bryce turned up the glare. With Wally, it could be just luck but he wouldn't find out more without pushing his friend. Wally tried to ignore the shiver running up his spine. Why did his friend have to learn from Batman of all people? "I knew you were here and I was going to start looking but then phone wettage happened and I needed to get it fixed and this is the only place I know that fixes phones and I have no phone to google any other places."

"Point," Bryce conceded. Without a working phone, Wally probably did just stick to what he knew. He scribbled his address down onto a card and gave it to Wally. "Chuck'll take care of your phone. I'll be back at my apartment sometime around 6."

"So, Nerd Herd?" Wally questioned, looking around. "Babs must be proud."

"Wally. Later," Bryce sighed.

* * *

Sarah followed Bryce into the staff room. He was just about to start his break and she needed to speak to him. She had needed to speak to him since he had appeared at their house the previous day.

"Was it really luck that Wally found you?" she demanded to know.

Bryce blinked, blue eyes sparkling. "Sure. Wally accidentally does things all the time. I can't tell if it's because his head moves faster than his body or vice versa."

Sarah stared. "I don't get it."

Bryce didn't either. "What do you mean?"

"You apologised to Chuck for not being at our wedding. You're working here and doing a good job according to Morgan. You spend time with that Mozzie character, who is a conman and seems to enjoy planning crimes in his spare time."

"Mozzie's plans come in handy when spying too," Bryce pointed out, feeling a little pang of annoyance at Sarah for insulting the man he considered a brother. "And Moz has helped me out of many dangerous situations. I can honestly say he's saved my life more than once."

Sarah shook her head. "That's not what I mean. I mean, this isn't exactly how I expect you to act."

"What did you expect?" Bryce asked. He knew perfectly well that he didn't act how Bryce had. After all, when he first started being Bryce Larkin, superspy, he didn't try to get close to people. After what happened with Chuck and hurting him to keep him out of the CIA's clutches, he figured it would be better if Bryce worked alone. Even if that did make him a little too much like his adoptive father. It was a good thing he wasn't Bryce often back then. He only became Bryce for missions, after which he would disappear back into being Dick and Nightwing.

Sarah had to think about that one. "I don't actually know. Perhaps that you'd try to get between me and Chuck again."

That one hurt. "Uh... no. You chose him. I know when to back off."

Sarah was still thinking. "Maybe that you'd bring a really difficult mission which would get us into trouble."

"A little more likely but still, nope. Sorry, I'm just on the run after my cover was blown."

"That's another thing. The Bryce I knew wouldn't have blown cover that easily."

"Easily?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow. "I was undercover day after day, plus I have a life outside of my cover and Bryce Larkin which decided to interfere."

Sarah crossed her arms. "Should we be worried about this other life of yours? I had no idea about it."

Bryce swallowed. "Look, I know we were together for a time but there were a lot of things about me which I didn't reveal to you. Mostly because they had nothing to do with Bryce Larkin." He braced himself for a hit.

"...I guess that's right. I was the same. There were many things I didn't share with you, things I didn't think I'd share with anyone before Chuck came along."

No hit. Bryce breathed a sigh of relief, hiding it as chuckle.

"Heh, yeah. Chuck's really good at butting into people's lives, isn't he?" Bryce commented with a grin. He remembered telling Chuck that he had gone to Stanford to get away from having to do business at Gotham U. Any course would have done but computer engineering had proven interesting, even though he knew the content. He got to put it into practise and he met people like Chuck.

Sarah gave him a small smile in return. "You should smile like that more often. It looks good."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Lots of characters in this chapter. Hopefully I've written it so it's easy to keep track of everyone... hopefully.

 

Now Casey was following him. It was only a day after he had spoken with Sarah and Bryce could feel the bulkier man's eyes on him. Like he was prey or something.

Bryce sighed. Now he was being slightly silly about it.

"What do you want from me?" he demanded to know.

Casey sneered, looking Bryce up and down. His eyes rested on the pocket protector with Bryce's photo and name on it.

"I don't think this is who you are," he growled, jabbing the picture.

"Well, duh," Bryce responded, grabbing Casey's arm and holding it there. "I'm not going by my actual name. I'm sure Sarah shared that with you." Otherwise he wouldn't be here, bugging Bryce right now. He knew that Casey was probably feeling insecure about who Bryce might be and obsessing a little much on whether Bryce was safe to have around the Intersect.

"Look-"

"Oi, Caffrey!" a voice called out. Bryce swivelled round, recognising that voice. But, Roy shouldn't have been using that name.

Roy and Jason were walking over and Jason had a wicked grin on his face. They were flanking two people Bryce recognised easily.

"Peter! El!" he gasped. He was going to run but Casey's hand clamped down on his shoulder. He glared up at the ex-NSA agent. "Really?"

Casey gave a grunt in reply. Bryce knew that Chuck would probably be able to tell him exactly what that particular grunt meant but Chuck wasn't here right now.

"Neal!" El said in a pleasant tone. "How nice to see you here while we're on vacation."

"Yeah," Roy snickered, "what a surprise."

"I hate you," Bryce said to Roy. He winced as Casey's grip increased. "Ow. Let go."

"Only me?" Roy said, hamming it up. "What about Jay?"

"Yeah, I was kind of counting on this making you hate me," Jason commented.

"We're family. And I kind of expect this from you," Bryce said to Jason. He then said pointedly to Roy, "but we're friends. How could you throw me under the bus like this?"

"Maybe because we're worried about you," El said.

Bryce frowned and looked at Peter, the only one who hadn't spoken yet. "You can't really arrest me, you have no way to prove that I'm Neal Caffrey."

"I did notice that your fingerprint files and other identifying forms had vanished," Peter pointed out smugly. "But, you've forgotten that we met your guardian. If I wanted to, all I'd have to do is prove a connection between Bryce Larkin and Dick Grayson."

"Bruce would never go for that."

"You're right," Peter sighed. Bryce wondered what kind of talks Peter had with his guardian. "I guess it's a good thing I'm just here checking up on you."

El nudged him. "And?"

"And ask if you'd consider working with the FBI as a CI. It doesn't have to be all the time, like how you were as Neal. Just whenever we would like some outside help on a case."

"Which is all the time, you guys could use all the help you can get," Jason snickered.

Bryce's eyes narrowed at his wayward brother. "And how far up the FBI most wanted list did you rise?"

Jason immediately stopped laughing. Roy snorted a laugh and then gave Jason an innocent 'it wasn't me' look.

"I really shouldn't be hearing this," Peter commented.

"Boys, keep the conversation in legal areas," El said. "Or I'll get my husband to arrest you all."

"You do know I was a federal agent as well," Bryce reminded her.

El nodded. "I'm sure you've had a very enlightening career. But, Peter has arrested you once, don't make him do it again."

Casey grunted in a huff, almost like a laugh.

"Shut up," Bryce said to him. "How long were you in prison again?"

"None of your business, Larkin," Casey growled, finally leaving.

"I really shouldn't be hearing this," Peter sighed.

* * *

"Good thing you're off duty then, Suit," Mozzie said from behind them, causing the group to jump.

Bryce took particular pleasure in the shocked look which crossed Roy's face and the horrified one from Jason. Neither of them had been able to sense the little guy come up behind them.

"Of course you're working here too," Peter said. "Because 'why not' right?"

"It's a living," Mozzie responded. "The gossip is almost as good as what one gets driving around in a taxi and the food is alright."

"Really, Moz?" a voice questioned from behind the short man.

Bryce's mouth dropped open. "You have got to be kidding me."

Even Roy was shocked. "Uh oh."

"You know her?" El asked.

Standing behind Mozzie with her hands on her hips was a dark haired woman, although her features were slightly different, Peter shouldn't shake the feeling that he also knew her. She had come in with Wally, who really was only there to pick his phone up and seemed to have bad timing.

Mozzie whirled around and if looks could kill, Donna would be dust.

"Peter, this is Donna Troy. We go way back," Bryce said.

"Of course he knows her. Bryce knows all the ladies," Casey grumbled.

"We're like siblings," Bryce responded. "I mean, we've played boyfriend and girlfriend before but-" He scrunched up his nose and frowned a little.

Donna made the same expression. "It was for a good cause though. Except I did not sign up to be bait to get your behind locked behind bars."

Peter's mouth dropped open and his hand touched where his gun was sheathed under his shirt. The move did not go unnoticed.

"Agent Burke, I assure you that I mean you no harm."

"Last time we met you pointed a gun at me."

"Unloaded," Donna countered.

"You pointed a gun at him?" Bryce was horrified. El too.

"Okay, what am I missing?" Jason asked.

"She's Kate, Neal's ex-girlfriend," Mozzie said.

"Neal's dead ex-girlfriend," Peter amended.

"Kate might be dead but I live on," Donna said.

"I'm suddenly glad that I only played Kate's ex-boyfriend who moved far away," Wally muttered. "I know I complained at the time about having to leave you two but, being able to walk away now is nice." He made his way over to the counter to talk with Chuck.

* * *

"Kate wasn't your girlfriend?" El asked Bryce.

Bryce nodded. "We don't care about sharing an apartment or splitting a pizza but Donna as Kate wasn't actually someone I was romantically involved with. I really was worried when she dropped off the map though."

"Worried enough to break out of prison even though I told you I had it handled," Donna responded.

"I'm sorry, you don't look much like your photos," El said.

"She sounds exactly the same though," Peter pointed out. It wasn't like plastic surgery was difficult to arrange.

Donna pulled out a necklace and put it on. Suddenly, Kate stood there. Instead of plastic surgery, it was magic. Peter complained under his breath. He didn't deal with magic.

"Take that off," Bryce sighed.

Grinning wickedly, she did so. "Anyway, it's good you're here," she said to Jason and Roy. "Wally and I were thinking of having a get together this evening at Bryce's place. He says he wants to try all the games."

"By all the games, he's probably just talking Guitar Hero," Bryce commented. Chuck had picked him up a copy soon after he returned to California. Which was strange, considering the games weren't on sale anymore.

"Sweet!" Roy commented. "I'm so there. I'll even drag Jason along!"

"Good. Come pick snacks with me," Donna said, grabbing their arms and guiding them out of the store.

Peter watched them go. "What's Donna like?" he asked Bryce. Because from what he had seen, she was different to Kate despite being the same person.

"Not as quiet as Kate. Most of Kate's quietness came from her not wanting to ruin her cover. That's also why she appeared to take guidance from me at times. Because she didn't want to do something to accidentally ruin everything."

"Good to know Kate's not a force that I have to keep out of your life again," Mozzie grumbled.

"Donna told me some of the things you said to her," Bryce said to Mozzie. "Why do you think I didn't want to steal those uncut diamonds with you?"

Mozzie huffed and walked away. Bryce commented that he had probably gone to spy on them, somehow acting more like a spy than any of the actual spies on staff.


	10. Chapter 10

 

El excused herself to go look at something in the white goods section. This left Peter and Bryce alone as Casey had walked off when the conversation turned to Kate. Bryce didn't know what to say to the agent. 'Sorry I lied to you?' felt like it would be a little weak especially since he didn't technically lie. He went around calling himself Neal Caffrey and so he was Neal Caffrey. Or at least, in the case of there possibly being others with the same name, he was the Neal Caffrey Peter knew.

"So Bryce Larkin, Superspy and Dick Grayson, the adopted son of Bruce Wayne, Gotham businessman and billionaire. Which is the real you?"

"I don't so much have a real me as I just have different names people know me by," Bryce said. "I'm always Dick Grayson. But Dick Grayson is also a spy who people call Bryce Larkin. And he's also an ex-conman known as Neal Caffrey." Bryce shrugged. He liked to think he was always himself.

Except for those times after he had gotten Chuck kicked out of Stanford. He spent as little time as possible as Bryce Larkin after that because it hurt to think about it and not be able to do anything about it. When the CIA had a job for him, he did it was quickly and efficiently as possible and then got out. Actually, that might be where the idea of him being a 'cold, heartless superspy who always put the mission first' came from.

Bryce knew that Chuck wouldn't accept any position at Wayne Industries, especially if Bryce got him the position. Chuck was not stupid and was very loyal so he probably would have been very suspicious of such an offer falling into his lap.

"Okay. What about the other ID you use?" Peter asked. "Your night one?"

"I'm sorry?" A lot of IDs came to mind. There was that time Bryce had been a male stripper in order to get into a target's private room. Then that time Dick Grayson had worked the shift before the graveyard shift at a bar. It had been a very productive time of his life because he got the information at the bar and then, as soon as he was off shift, he could go and act on that information as Nightwing.

Peter sighed. "Here are the pieces I gathered. One: Dick Grayson's past. You were an acrobat at the circus. Actually, your family was one of the best and you were set to be a star. Two: Dick Grayson grew up in Gotham. Gotham is famous for a couple of things but one is the large number of vigilantes." That was the moment Bryce put it all together. Peter had found out about Nightwing. "Three, and keep in mind that I'm just condensing my notes into three main points here, guess who turned up in California shortly after you? I'm guessing that's how Jason was able to find you so quick by the way. Need I go on?"

"Please don't," Bryce chuckled. This was why he respected Peter. He reminded Bryce a little of Commissioner Gordon. Except Commissioner Gordon liked to pretend he didn't know while Peter would be upfront about it if he needed to be. "I get it but I don't need the whole store to get it. Who else knows?"

Peter raised an eyebrow like Bryce was missing something. "Do you really think I'm going to tell anyone this? You know who your father is right? I'm not looking for any kind of trouble, bat or businessman."

Bryce snorted a laugh and then gave into giggles.

* * *

It was nice seeing Peter again. He didn't know how he felt about Peter knowing about Nightwing but he figured it would be fine. Peter wouldn't betray his trust.

Their visit had tired him out though. Bryce left work for his apartment, ready to just crash and sleep until 3am when he would go out as Nightwing.

He opened the door to see Wally standing on his couch, game guitar in hand. Roy was sitting on the floor and cursing at the TV while Jason was smirking and hitting every note.

He closed the door and wondered where he could sleep. He might be able to get away with borrowing the guest room at Chuck's place, however he wouldn't be able to explain sneaking out at 3am.

Maybe he could borrow one of Mozzie's safe houses?

"Are you really just going to stand there?" Donna asked, opening the door again.

"No. I was trying to figure out where to go to get some sleep."

"Sleep is for the weak!" Jason called out. He had ears like a bat.

"Sleep is for people who work day jobs!" Bryce called back. "And other jobs!" Although the CIA had been quiet lately.

"Go nap. We'll join you tonight then," Donna said.

"Why does that sound like the worst idea in the world?" Mozzie said harshly from the table.

"Oh, hey Moz," Bryce said, walking into the apartment. The rest of the group froze, as if they hadn't realised Mozzie was there until now. "How freely were they talking?"

"Kate, I mean Donna, was careful. I think Wallace was under the impression that I already knew. As for the rest, I have no idea if they noticed I was here or not."

"Considering this apartment was once under surveillance by the CIA, you should really be careful what you say in here."

"Really?" Roy questioned. "What did the guy living here before you do to have them watching him so closely?"

"It's not what he did but what I did," Bryce said. "And that stuff is classified. Either give up on knowing or figure it out yourself."

"Will you break us out of the underground CIA prison?" Jason asked.

"No."

"Then forget it. Your life just ain't that interesting."

Bryce shrugged and slipped out of the room, after letting everyone know that there were chips in the cupboard and they could go nuts. He had different plans. There was no way he was going to be able to sleep here.

Chuck had mentioned something about being able to slip out the window and Bryce figured that there was no time like the present to find out how easy it was to slip out of this apartment.

* * *

Getting out of a first floor apartment was child's play. Bryce hopped into the Nerd Herder car Chuck had loaned out to him for the job and drove. While he was trying to decide where to go, El called. She wanted to know how the party with his friends was going.

"I snuck out," he responded. "I'm tired and need to sleep."

El hummed thoughtfully. "If you're saying that, then you must be tired." She listed off the hotel she and Peter were staying at. "Come and see us. I mistakenly got us a room with two beds so you can have the other."

Bryce mused on that for a moment before agreeing. Peter knew about Nightwing so he could get out easily.

When Peter opened the door to the hotel room, he looked Bryce up and down. "You really do look tired. How were you hiding it earlier?"

"Makeup and a work persona," Bryce responded. He was also not hiding his exhaustion from Peter. It had been a long day, one far more emotional than it had the right to be.

"You used makeup?"

"I'm an expert at it," Bryce informed him. "Not only does it make for a good disguise since you can change how your face looks but, it's very good at hiding bruises and tiredness."

"I'm aware. I don't know why I'm surprised. I just really hope you put those skills to good use."

"Most of the time." There had been a couple of cons Neal had pulled where he used makeup to hide and cover himself.

"What's in the bag?" El asked when Bryce's bag hit the floor with a metalic sounding thunk.

"Just something for an early morning job I have."

"How early?" He responded and El immediately showed him where the bed was. "I hope you know how proud Peter is that you have a job here. Although he does miss you."

"It's a retail job. Nothing special."

"Don't say that! It's you putting your skills to use in the service industry."

"He sells and fixes computers," Peter reminded his wife.

"Two things that you can't do," El reminded him.

Peter went a little pink around the ears. Bryce laughed. He knew that Peter got Diana to recommend computers to buy and to help him keep his up-to-date. He wasn't incompetent; Peter could use a computer and use it well but, he just didn't pay attention the hardware components and didn't really try and fix it when things went wrong.

Not that Bryce blamed him for not trying. Some fixes took hours to do yourself and that's only if someone else had founded and posted the fix online.

Such understanding didn't stop Bryce from grinning at Peter like he had won something. Peter just sighed and accepted it.


	11. Chapter 11

 

Dick didn't want to intrude for too long. He told them he would just sleep for a couple of hours and then he would leave. However, he had underestimated how comfortable he was in the presence of the Burkes. Dick didn't wake up until his phone buzzed in his pocket, a silent alarm going off and waking him. The hotel room was dark but it didn't take long for Dick to adjust. He slipped out onto the balcony and pulled off his shirt and pants, revealing the Nightwing costume underneath. He had the forethought to leave his bag out on the balcony for a quiet exit. Grabbing his escrima sticks and grappling hook from it, he jumped off and into the night.

* * *

Wally caught up with him as he shoved a thief up against the wall. Since Wally was dressed in his Flash costume, Nightwing didn't even have to turn around to know who it was. The flash of colour in the corner of his vision was enough.

"What's up, Flash?" he asked.

"Seriously dude? You ditch us and you ask what's up?"

"I didn't ditch you."

"Donna went to wake you up and you weren't there. That's ditching."

"Come on. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep with you all playing outside my room."

"So rude." Wally sounded offended but Dick could hear the playful tone to his voice.

"Oh well. You still have Red Arrow," he bantered back.

"Red Arrow likes to corner his friends with flamethrowers."

"I can hear him now, 'it was one time!'," Dick said in a wistful tone.

"Just arrest me now," the thief complained. "I don't want to listen to any of this."

"That can be arranged." Dick tied the thief up and called the police. "Are you going to hang around all night?" he asked Wally.

A red blur raced around him. "Of course!" Wally responded, stopping right next to him.

* * *

At six, Dick slipped back into his apartment through the window. However, he barely got one leg into the room when his light came on.

Mozzie stood in the doorway. "Oh good. You're back in time for work." Mozzie seemed to have no trouble reading Dick's confused expression through the mask as he elaborated, "I thought I might have to call you in sick."

Dick was reminded of one time when he hadn't arrived at a meeting with Mozzie in time because he had gotten caught up trying to sneak out of a drug warehouse and ended up fighting and arresting everyone inside instead of just gathering evidence. Maybe Mozzie suspected the same this time?

"It's only six, it's not that late."

Mozzie hummed in agreement. However, "you took the company car with you. You know I rely on that to get to work."

"It's parked outside and I filled up the tank," Dick informed his little friend. "Doesn't your shift start later today?"

"I'm still going to the Buy More beforehand."

"Why?" Why would anyone spend more time in there than they had to? Sure, their co-workers were nice and interesting people but any shopping could be done while they were on the clock.

"It's not so much the Buy More as what's under it," Mozzie said. "I heard that Chuck had access to some of Roark's old computer models, you know, the ones which went out of fashion the moment he died suddenly and it came out that his computers were filled with spyware?"

Dick winced. He remembered Roark. "He got what was coming to him."

"I am curious as to what made up the spyware. Chuck had agreed to let me take them apart, the software and the hardware."

Dick didn't know what Mozzie might find that the entire CIA and hacking community hadn't already. But, whatever made Mozzie happy.

"This isn't just an excuse to get into the underground spy base, is it?" he questioned.

"One can have more than one goal, Dick," Mozzie said.

Dick questioned the use of his first name but Mozzie didn't respond. It didn't sound like he was insulting him but it was strange that Mozzie had switched to it when almost everyone knew him as 'Bryce' here.

* * *

Dick was given boxes of DVDs to put out on display. The only order they had to be in was type. Each shelf was labelled with a different type; tv box sets, tv series, movies, kid's movies.

"Is that a good one?" El asked.

Dick looked at the DVD box in his hand, a TV show currently on its third season.

"I have no clue. I don't really watch much TV," he responded. He passed her the box but she continued staring at him. "What?"

"Did you sleep at all between leaving our room and now?"

"No."

She huffed. "You're worse than Peter sometimes."

"Hey! I have many power naps. Never underestimate the power of a good power nap."

"That doesn't sound healthy."

"As much as she doesn't like it, the family doctor says that our sleeps schedules are fine and will do us no harm in the long run, as long as we keep up the power naps."

El was curious so she asked, "are you going to be staying in Burbank?"

Dick didn't even have to think about his response, "no. I'm only here for a little bit while I get my head into gear and also while I arrange to have Bryce Larkin scraped, including his service to the CIA. Basically, I'm trying to quit, something only a few people have managed."

"That sounds ominous."

"It's the kind of job which is difficult to leave because you live and breathe the work. There's no 'off switch' and those who try to leave often end up coming back for 'one last mission'."

"Sounds a little like being a conman," Peter commented from the other aisle.

Dick agreed. However he was one of the people who could make a clean escape if he wanted to. After all, he had other ways of satisfying the part of him that couldn't help but want to help.

"Did I hear you tell my wife that you wouldn't be staying here?"

Dick nodded. "I'm not too sure where I'm going to go once my resignation is accepted but, I know I won't be staying here."

"Can I make a suggestion?"

"New York?" Dick correctly guessed.

"Diana's almost forgiven you for gassing her. Whatever you used was potent, she's normally able to resist things like that because of the job her father had when she was growing up."

Dick winced. He was sorry about that and would be more sorry if he met her face to face again. There was great risk there as Diana could maybe take him in an unfair fight.

"It's also another clue to what your other job is," Peter said. "You're alright? I wouldn't want you getting hurt out there."

Dick grinned. "I can handle myself." Although it had been a while since anyone really worried about him going out on patrol. It was a nice feeling coming from Peter. "Don't worry, I didn't even get a bruise. It's nice being able to stretch my muscles after so long."

Peter was convinced but still worried. They both shared a laugh that at least it wasn't as dangerous as CIA work before the Burkes decided to leave. El wanted to spend some time on the beach before they went back to New York.

* * *

Bryce had put his resignation in shortly after arriving in Burbank. Even so, it had taken a while to get processed. Dick knew the day it had been accepted because Chuck turned up on his doorstep after work.

"Sarah tells me you quit the CIA."

"That's correct."

"Why?"

"Chuck, the work isn't really for me. I love helping people but there are other ways of doing it. Ways that don't feel like they're costing me my soul." Dick opened the door and invited his old college friend inside. Mozzie was sitting at the dining table with a cup of tea and was very interested in the drama now happening inside the apartment.

Although he was considering having a chat to Dick about his personal life, or lack of one. Neal was so suave that sometimes Mozzie forgot that he was useless at making and keeping friends.

"You could work for me and Sarah," Chuck suggested. "No, consider this a job offer. Come work for me and Sarah."

"What does Sarah think of that?"

"She won't mind."

"Even though we dated for a while."

Chuck raised an eyebrow. "You really think she's not over you?"

"Ouch." Even Mozzie laughed at that one.

"It's true. Join us, Bryce."

Dick sighed. "Chuck, I'm going back to being Dick Grayson with everything that Dick Grayson entails."

"Join us, Dick," Chuck repeated, this time changing the name and making them laugh.


	12. Chapter 12

 

Even though Chuck made his offer sound enticing, Dick knew that he couldn't stay. It was good that the CIA put his resignation through because the day after, he received a phone call from Jason.

"I wouldn't be calling you if this wasn't... ugh! Kory told me to do it," Jason said.

Immediately, Dick was worried. For Kory to suggest calling him and for Jason to actually follow through, something big was happening.

"We're calling an intervention. Roy picked up the bottle."

"But he was doing so well!" Roy had almost completed his second dry year; not even touching a drop of alcohol. "Why?"

"I don't know. Kory wants to call in all his old friends, see if you guys can provide some source of encouragement or something that we... can't. I'd rather not call in too many people if we don't have to."

It seemed Jason both wanted his privacy and wanted to keep Roy's condition quiet. Right now, Roy couldn't consent to people knowing about his lapse. If their friends couldn't help, they would be embarrassing Roy for nothing.

"Where's it taking place?"

"We're in New York. Figured it would be easier for everyone get here. Plus, there's always some scum here."

Dick rolled his eyes. It seemed Jason was also working nights as Red Hood while helping Roy.

"Got it. I'll be on the next flight out."

"You better be or you're dead. Got that, Grayson?"

"Careful, you're starting to sound like Damian."

Jason groaned and hung up.

Dick immediately called Mozzie. Mozzie would take care of the apartment and company car. Then he called Morgan.

Morgan was fine with him taking time off to help a friend. It wasn't like Bryce and Mozzie had been hired because they needed staff. They would be fine without them.

Then Dick called the flight company and found a flight to New York he could join.

* * *

Dick had only a carry-on bag for the flight. He stepped into the aisle and looked for somewhere to sit. Lost in thoughts about how he hadn't even been able to wish El and Peter a goodbye as their flight left sometime that day; he didn't notice the people he was thinking about spotting him.

"Dick!"

He paused and looked around, taking a couple of moments to spot and recognise El. Peter looked surprised to see him, probably as surprised as he felt.

"Hi. I feel the need to say that I didn't plan this," Dick said. Conveniently, there was also a free seat next to Peter. He slipped his bag into the carry on luggage area and sat down.

"What happened to the Buy More?" Peter questioned.

"I've taken some time off. Mozzie can hold down the fort."

"Why?"

"You're very suspicious, Peter."

"Because it's you. You might be more than Neal Caffrey but you're still a person of many agendas."

"I'm needed in New York."

"Did someone die?"

"No." Pause. "I hope not." Jason had been light on the details. "My brother called me back to New York as one of our mutual friends is going through a rough patch."

"I hope you come into White Collar while you're visiting," Peter said. "I've got some paperwork for you to do. Neal Caffrey may have vanished but that doesn't mean his work pile did."

"Ugh. You're not going to win me over with paperwork. Make it a forged map or something and I'm in."

"How about an apology to Diana before she comes beating down your door?"

"Do you have somewhere to stay? Are you staying with June?" El questioned in a concerned tone.

"If she'll have me. Or I'll just bunk with my friends. Since they're insisting that I come, they can at least make room on the couch."

It was a pleasant flight back. Dick enjoyed actually having time outside of work and exhausted visits to talk with the Burkes, now that they knew who he was. El managed to extract a promise from him that he would talk to Bruce about getting Burke Events to manage an event in New York for the company.

* * *

The flight landed and Dick dashed off to find Kori. She was waiting outside, looking impatient.

"I could have flown you here," she said as he rushed past towards Jason's car.

"Sure, but I wouldn't want anyone aside from Wally carrying me all that way. It's a lot time to hold me up."

"You're not heavy," Kori huffed, her hair fizzling with flames.

"Don't fight and get in," Jason said to the both of them. "We had to leave Roy to come get you, Dick."

He jumped in, feeling the worry in the air as Jason drove them back to the penthouse apartment where they were staying. Dick wondered how they were paying for it but assumed that it was either because of paid vigilante work, a con or the swiping of Bruce's card.

Roy was lying on the couch, where Kori and Jason had left him. There was no sigh of alcohol but Roy was moaning like a sick dog.

"Hey man, you alright?" Dick asked the moment he came inside.

Roy groaned again and opened one rubbed raw eye. "What do you think?" he groaned, burping a little at the end. He went a little green, like he was going to throw up. Kori floated to sit down beside him, providing a source of warmth like a hot water bottle. It was not surprise to any of them that Roy latched on.

"Water," Dick muttered, going to the kitchen. He found a glass and a straw.

"I'll put together some food," Jason said, pulling out cucumber and lettuce. Dick was a bit against having a salad but it wasn't like they could have anything which could upset Roy's stomach.

Roy was in not shape to tell them what had happened. Their focus was on getting him better.

* * *

Roy fell asleep after food and water and woke sometime in the afternoon. He didn't question why Dick was there or why they were watching old movies. Instead he just settled down to enjoying everyone hanging out.

That night, Dick held down the fort while Jason went out to channel his worry into fighting crime. Kori had gone with him to make sure he didn't make any dangerous mistakes. Dick's night was spent giving Roy ice packs for his headache, food and water for his nausea and keeping him entertained with movies until he fell asleep again.

Dick fell asleep and woke to the morning light and the smell of bacon and eggs. Roy woke around the same time, stomach rumbling.

* * *

After breakfast, Dick asked what happened. He posed the question to the whole table in order to give them all an out if it was to early to talk about it. After a moment, Roy answered;

"I'm a father."

There was a moment where a pin drop could have been heard. Despite all being adults, they didn't know how to handle something like this.

"When did you find out?"

"A couple of days ago." That explained the drinking.

"Whose the mother?" Jason asked.

"Cheshire."

"I thought you two were in the past? As in years past?"

Dick had a sinking feeling when Roy nodded in response to Jason's question.

"She hid my daughter from me. For years. I didn't know for. Three. Years!" Roy banged his head onto the table, leaving it there.

"Do you know her name?" Kori asked.

"Her name is Lian."

"Do you know where she is?" Dick had gone from spending his time with spies to probably spending his time with assassins in the future. It was not the first time in his life this had happened.

"Who? Cheshire?"

"Yes. Or Lian."

"What are you thinking, Dick?" Kori asked.

Jason seemed to have an idea as he smirked and checked the weapons he had concealed on his person.

"I'm thinking we go and get Lian back. Do up some proper paperwork for her and Roy can either raise her or give her to a loving family. People who aren't going to raise her like an assassin."

"Sounds like a plan." As expected, Jason approved.

Roy seemed a little apprehensive. "I don't know if I want to raise her. And I don't know if I'd be okay giving her away."

"Let's just get her out of the baby assassin home," Jason said. "Then you can worry about the rest."

Dick agreed. Roy didn't need to decide now. It was important to make sure Lian was being raised happily and safely first.


	13. Chapter 13

 

It was in the forests of Japan that they found Lian. Jason and Dick were rather suspicious about her being there and Kori was alert for danger as they searched. Roy had only announced on the plane ride here that he knew where Lian was because Cheshire had told him. This was either a trap or Cheshire wanted Roy to take Lian.

As part of the Wayne family, where Bruce's biological kid was dropped of with them twice by his mother before they finally decided to just keep him instead of sending him back, Dick felt he couldn't really say which option Cheshire was going for. As illogical as it seemed, Cheshire could really just be giving her daughter up to her father.

Lian was standing in the forest, a tiny girl in a purple dress playing with throwing knives. She didn't have the best form but she did manage to stab the knives into nearby tree roots easily enough. Roy was the only one of the group who found that disturbing; Kori was from a warrior race and grew up around weapons, Jason grew up on the streets and the knife throwers in the circus were always willing to show Dick their tricks.

"What do I do?" Roy asked.

"Go up and talk to her. We will keep a watch for mama tiger," Dick whispered.

"Please don't ever call Cheshire that again," Roy groaned as Kori shoved him towards the girl.

"Go introduce yourself," she encouraged with a smile. They all watched nervously as Roy walked over and placed his bow and arrows on the ground. He took off his red cap and knelt down by the girl. She seemed surprised to see another person but she heard him out simply.

"Huh. I expected her to at least threaten him," Jason mused. "What is Cheshire teaching her?"

Dick bit back a comment about how Jason seemed to be comparing the little girl to Damian, the only kid they knew who spoke in threats.

"She could just have a trusting heart."

"That sounds so corny, Dick," Jason groaned. "Very you, but I'm hoping Roy's spawn is a little more awesome."

It seemed Roy managed to convince Lian to come with him. He carried the dark haired girl over, grinning widely. They were a little surprised that she looked so much like her mother and not at all like Roy.

"Okay Lian, these are my... friends."

"What was with that pause?" Jason demanded to know.

"That's Red Hood, that's Nightwing," Dick waved. "And that's Starfire."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, little one," Kori said, hair blazing out behind her as she stepped forward to welcome the girl.

"You're pretty," Lian said. She looked at Roy. "Can I get my hair like that too?"

Roy and Kori tried to explain to the girl that her hair couldn't do that because she wasn't Tamaranian. Dick and Jason weren't much help, they were mostly there because they were able to pilot the Batplane.

"We're flying Air Red Hood this time," Jason said to Dick on the way back.

"Fine, whatever," Dick responded. After all, Jason had complained all the way here about Dick's flying, so he was fine with letting him fly back. Dick would be able to sleep instead of listening to whining.

* * *

'Air Red Hood' had to land in Gotham to return the plane. The group was not surprised to see Alfred standing in the hanger when they landed.

"Welcome back, Master Jason, Roy, Ms Koriand'r and Young Miss Lian, Master Dick, a word?" Alfred said.

Dick had a sinking feeling in his chest. He was in trouble, he could just feel it. Quickly, he went back over the past few days. What could he have done that made Alfred seek him out? It couldn't be taking the plane since Alfred was only picking on him.

"We'll just go upstairs then?" Jason said.

"There are food and drinks down here," Alfred said. "I require Master Dick upstairs."

Dick caught the pitying look Jason momentarily sent him. But his brother didn't step in to defend him. He took their friends and went towards the snacks, wishing him good luck.

Dick followed Alfred towards the stairs up to the manor. "So, what happened?" he asked, hoping for some answers.

"Master Dick, I believe I have tried to make sure you boys realise that you are wanted," Alfred said cryptically.

"Yeah?"

"And that people flock around you all."

"Even Jason?"

Alfred nodded.

"Even Damian?"

"He has been following in the steps of the fine man who raised him."

"Raised him? But Bruce didn't know about him until he was ten."

"Total time is not as important as the impact one makes during that time. And I was not referring to Master Bruce."

Dick didn't get what Alfred was saying, aside from time not being an issue. He guessed that was true. He had grown close to Bruce quick enough when he had been young.

"As for my previous comments, it's better that you experience it for yourself." Alfred opened the hidden bookshelf door to the Batcave and walked out into the study with Dick behind him.

There had already been someone in the study. Someone possessing dark hair and a kind, round face.

"Bryce! You're okay!"

"Chuck?"

How was Chuck able to be here? "Why are you here?"

"Why? You vanished from New York without a word. Agent Burke contacted me to find out what was going on. Of course, all I know is that you took time off from work."

"I don't know if I'll be coming back," Dick pointed out. "Roy's going to need support for a while."

"I don't know who Roy is but I guess he's a friend?" When Dick nodded Chuck sighed. "You probably won't be accepting the job with Carmichael Industries then."

"Casey will be happy," Sarah said, drawing attention to her presence by the wall.

Dick glared at her.

"Sarah!" Chuck scolded.

"Look, you know as well as I that Casey barely accepted Bryce around the Buy More. If he started hanging out in Castle and coming on missions with us, Casey would be almost impossible to work with."

"Me as well," Dick pointed out. "I wouldn't be fun to work with if Casey was around. He's shot me. More than once."

Alfred's eyebrows went up and Chuck and Sarah wondered if he was shocked. After all, he worked with Bruce Wayne and anyone who took the time to google his name knew what happened to Bruce's parents.

"Hey, guns aren't banned in this house, are they?" Sarah questioned quietly.

"Don't worry about your weapons, Mrs Bartowski," Alfred said. "Any one member of this household will stop you, should you attempt to use them."

"Alfred," Dick sighed. Sometimes the manor seemed like it got crazier and crazier the more people lived here.

* * *

Chuck and Sarah kept looking around. While Chuck asked questions about everything, Sarah was a little more reserved. Dick at least found out that they knew the basics about his past. Chuck had proven himself perceptive once again by commenting that it would have been lonely to grow up in such a big manor.

Chuck also seemed to take the secret passages for granted. Sarah wasn't as open minded.

"Why was there a passage behind the bookshelf?" she asked when they reached the main entrance hall.

"What do you mean?" Dick asked, playing dumb.

She was unimpressed. "You know exactly what I mean. Most houses don't have secret passageways."

"Wayne Manor is a building with a long standing history," Dick recited. "And it wasn't always this size. The family added to it every few decades, building new passageways between rooms and sealing off others."

Chuck's eyes lit up and Dick could practically hear the unspoken 'cool'.

"There's also a hidden armoury which belongs to my family," a child's voice said snottily from one of the other doors. "The entrance is somewhere on the ground floor."

"Damian!" Dick greeted him happily. He hadn't seen the kid on their way in since everyone had been so focused on borrowing the Batplane.

"Grayson. You've been gone a while and now you're showing strangers around like you own the place." Damian's eyes narrowed and Dick winced under the scrutinising glare. The poor kid must have felt a little abandoned when Dick disappeared for a while.

"Chuck, Sarah, this is my little brother, Damian."

"I am the only biological son of my father. The rest are people he picked up off the street."

Dick grinned and ruffled Damian's hair. "Yes, yes, you're the heir. We know."

Chuck chuckled. "I doubt anyone would really want the work which comes with Bruce's position anyway."

Dick pointed to Chuck with a wide grin. Here was someone who got it! "That's right! I don't really have a head for business!"

"Says the man who boasts of being the world's greatest conman and who wanted to start a business with Chuck back in college," Sarah said drily.

"I'd have Chuck for the numbers part," Dick tried saying.

"Wasn't your cover that of an accountant?" Chuck countered, feeling that he may had dodged a bullet by not going into business with Bryce. "How could you not do business?"

"It's more like business is boring?" Dick suggested.

Damian clicked his tongue. "Of course you'd think that. You get no pleasure from crushing your enemies."

"He means other companies, right?" Sarah questioned, a little unnerved by Damian's bloodthirstiness. Suddenly, Bryce seemed like a nice guy when placed next to this kid.

"For the context of this situation... yes," Dick answered.

"What about other situations?" Chuck asked. He didn't get an answer. "What about the other situations, Bryce?"


	14. Chapter 14

 

Alfred arranged a hotel for Chuck and Sarah. However they refused to leave. Dick wilted under the 'fix this' glare Alfred sent him. They couldn't just have Chuck and Sarah here, they were both trained spies and Chuck carried with him an entire library of spy secrets. They couldn't be allowed to find the Batcave.

"Really guys?"

"You might run off somewhere else," Chuck announced in a matter-of-fact tone. "We thought you were going to New York but, no. You came here."

"Actually I went to New York then came here and then to Japan and back," Dick informed them.

"The point stands. You're either going back to Burbank or to New York." Sarah was being pushy.

"Why?"

"Mozzie said you liked New York and Agent Burke lives there too," Sarah said. "And Chuck would like it if you were somewhere where he can keep tabs on you."

"Stalker," Dick said to Chuck.

"Can you blame me?" Chuck responded. "Every time you appear in my life, you bring trouble."

"Didn't this time. Besides, you're appearing in my life now. Plus, if you get in trouble in Gotham, that's not my fault. I didn't ask you to come."

"Well my stupid husband refuses to leave until he has a way to stay in contact with you, so you better figure this out soon."

"That's a lot of pressure to put on one guy, Sarah," Dick responded, crossing his arms over his chest. He had figured that she was only here to make sure Chuck stayed safe. "What if I decide to stay here?"

There was a laugh from the door.

"You'd be out of here in under a week," Kori said with a giggle as she floated in. "You and Bruce can't stand each other for more than a couple of weeks at most."

Chuck's mouth dropped to the ground in recognition.

"You- you're Starfire!" he squealed.

"The model?" Sarah questioned, looking Kori up and down. She looked to Dick. "That's right, you two dated."

"Before Stanford, yes," Dick responded. "We lasted about a year. I enrolled in Stanford after our break up."

"Whoa. She's a superhero!" Chuck said excitedly. "What's it like dating a superhero?"

"I used to be a model as well," Kori purred. "Did you not see the ads?"

"Not really? I mean, I know you used to be a model because it was your not-superhero job and it was interesting to see a hero share their day job but I was more interested in the starbolt throwing alien than the model selling me things," Chuck rambled.

Kori pulled up a chair at their little kitchen table. "Do you have any questions about being a hero?"

"Not really. Except maybe what it's like not really being able to go anywhere because people might recognise you."

"That is not usually an issue," Kori responded. "I do not mind if they notice me."

"Plus there are means of disguising oneself," Dick explained. Kori tended to prefer her natural form, but she did have a holographic necklace which she could use to alter her features.

"Don't you hang around Red Hood now?" Sarah questioned warily. "And isn't he on the FBI wanted list?"

"The Red Hood is quite proud of the image he has cultivated as a criminal, all in the name of clearing the streets of crime," Kori said in a very diplomatic manner.

"Yeah. The image he 'cultivated'," Dick grumbled. He didn't like that people used to die because the Red Hood decided it.

Kori glared at him. "There will be no fights between you two."

"Would you like a job at the Buy More?" Chuck asked.

Kori giggled.

"Chuck!" Sarah scolded.

"That kind of attitude would be very helpful."

"She's a superhero and model. Surely she has better offers than the Buy More!"

Kori chuckled. "You remind me of someone I know. He also spent time going around and inviting people to join his team."

"Who?" Chuck questioned curiously.

"Nightwing."

Dick felt his face heat up. Kori was comparing him to Chuck?

"You're comparing me to Nightwing?" Chuck sounded just as shocked.

Kori giggled.

* * *

Dick left Kori with instructions to not leave Chuck and Sarah alone and went to check on Roy and Lian. They had moved into a guest room with Jason hovering by the door with a book.

Dick eyed the cover. He was certain that book had been in Jason's old room.

"What?" Jason growled.

"Nothing. I just came to see the happy family. Papa Roy, Papa Jay and little Lian."

"Papa Jay!" Lian parroted with a wide grin.

Roy snorted a laugh and Jason looked like he was about to shoot Dick.

"Don't you dare let her call me that," Jason said to Roy. "You're the only 'Papa' here."

"On that note, have you decided what you're going to do?"

Roy wished Lian goodnight, helped her into bed and met them outside.

"I want to keep her. I think that's what Cheshire wants as well."

"Well, we can only guess about her," Jason grumbled. "But I'll help out where you need."

"Okay. Because I'm going to be quitting the vigilante business."

Dick didn't know how to respond to that. The shocked look on Jason's face said the same thing. Roy had been part of the hero club since his teen years. It seemed like he was in it for life, just like them.

What would he even do, now that he's decided to stop? "Are you going to spend all your time looking after her?"

Roy gave Dick a surprised look. "That's what parents are meant to do. I want to be there for her and I can't do that if I'm risking death every night."

"Everyone dies," Jason said with a shrug.

"And some actions increase the chance of that happening," Roy countered. "Look, I'd like you two to help me get a new life started but, if we're not friends-"

Not friends? What?

"Hey, whoa," Jason interrupted. "No one said that."

"Yeah. We just want to be sure that you've thought it all out."

"I've had a couple of days. I want to quit. Do you think you can help me?"

"I'll start looking at houses," Jason said with a grin. "Where do you think you'd want to live?"

"I'll call Barbara and get her started on a birth certificate for Lian." Dick escaped the house conversation and shot a quick text to the gorgeous and smart red-head who was also their computer genius.

She knew the moment she saw the words 'gorgeous and smart' that Dick wanted something. She promised to have the birth certificate ready the next day.

Now Dick just had to find a way to stay here a little longer without Chuck or Sarah finding the Batcave. It should be a simple task. He knew just the place to take them.

* * *

Wayne Manor had a games room. Commonly known as an 'entertainment room'. However, after raising at least four boys and a couple of girls, the entertainment room contained more than just darts and a pool table. There were consoles from all eras and games to match, a couple of pinball machines and at least ten beanbags.

Chuck's eyes almost fell out of his head.

"I doubt you'll keep it to just a game of pool?" Sarah asked. Chuck shook his head as he walked around, looking at everything.

"Depends. What am I allowed to touch?" he asked, eyeing off copy of the first Legend of Zelda game and the NES to play it on.

"Pretty much anything in this room. You damage any of it and we have the skills to fix them."

"That's surprising," Sarah commented.

Dick shrugged. "The older stuff is quite simple. It doesn't take much to fix."

"Now I'm thinking you were overqualified for the Nerd Herd," Chuck mused.

Sarah twitched. "He was always overqualified."

"Perhaps. But perhaps not. You need to be able to troubleshoot and fix computers to be in the Nerd Herd. That's why Casey is a green shirt." Chuck made his way over to the pinball machines. "But if you can fix these things, then there's an untapped retro market we could have been bringing in."

"Chuck," Dick sighed.

"I'm just lamenting lost opportunities," Chuck said. He knew Dick wasn't coming back to the Buy More and he didn't need his old friend to say it. "Especially since you could have taken a look at some of mine and Morgan's old systems."

"I can still do that," Dick said. "But I'm going to need more than your old college email to contact you at."

Chuck hummed in response, completely focused on the pinball game he had started.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

* * *

It was tricky business, setting up the guest room so that they would know the moment Chuck or Sarah tried to leave. The room had its own bathroom so they shouldn't need to go out the hall. Dick figured weight sensors in the ceiling wouldn't be a bad idea. No one was supposed to be up there therefore if Sarah or Chuck thought of leaving that way, it wouldn't be odd to have sensors up there. They could always claim they were there to locate vermin.

However, Dick was hesitant to put in cameras. Because, between Sarah's spy skills and Chuck's intersect, there was a high chance of any cameras being spotted.

Jason argued that being able to see them was important. What if they tried something they hadn't thought of? The ceiling was alarmed, the hallway as well but what if they tried the window or something?

Bruce was quick to remind them that opening the window would trigger a silent alert for them as well.

"But how do we know whether it's because they are trying to explore or if they just wanted to let in some fresh air? This is why the cameras are important."

"Why don't we just send someone to nap in the tree outside?" Roy suggested. "I suggest Tim."

"Tim's not here right now," Bruce said. "Besides, they'll spot someone in the tree."

"Yeah, but they can just pretend they're just hanging out or something."

"That's a terrible plan. It'd be easier to just send Dick into the room for the night to watch them," Jason said.

Everyone paused as they realised that wasn't a bad plan. Dick winced as they all turned to him.

It looked like he wouldn't be getting much sleep that night.

* * *

Chuck enjoyed helping in the kitchen and Alfred praised his skills. Chuck quietly admitted to Dick later that he had used the Intersect to help. On the other hand, Kori had taken to floating behind Sarah, chatting about all manner of mundane things. The flaming-haired alien was glad when Dick returned and she could go back to hanging around Lian instead.

Sarah suspected something was different about this place, even if she couldn't put her finger on it. Dick could only hope that Chuck's 'none of my business' attitude would rub off on her before she got in trouble.

Dinner was a more lavish affair than normal. Alfred called everyone to the dining room instead of the table in the kitchen. He decked out the table with all manner of food and treats. Dick's stomach growled at the sight.

"With Mr Harper, Young Miss Lian and Master Dick's friends staying the night, I thought we could splurge a little," Alfred explained.

Bruce's face was stormy but he couldn't say anything against this, not after Alfred had gone to all the trouble of preparing it.

"Awesome," Jason said, eyeing the spread. He started loading up his plate.

"This is amazing," Chuck whispered to Dick.

"Not really. Think of it as a party since you're all here," Dick whispered back. "And seriously, enjoy. Alfred is the best cook."

Chuck grinned and decided to start eating. The group laughed and talked. Questions about Dick's time as a spy came up and Sarah was interested to see that Dick's family didn't seem shocked or surprised about any of the stories they were told about Bryce.

She was certain Jason muttered to Roy that 'big deal, I died first' during the Intersect story. Maybe she heard it wrong?

* * *

When they were heading off to bed, Chuck and Sarah both frowned when Dick followed them with blankets and pillows.

"What?"

"I'm sure the beds were already made," Sarah said.

"Well yeah, but I'll have to sleep on the floor so," Dick hoisted his armload as if to say 'I'll need these'.

"Why on the floor?" Chuck questioned.

"Why in our room?" Sarah corrected because she didn't need some smart answer from the other man-child in the hallway. "Don't you have your own bedroom?"

"Come on, Sarah. It's been so long since I've had a good slumber party. Trust me, the people here aren't big on sleep."

"Seriously?" Chuck questioned.

"I think Tim doesn't really sleep at all. Then again, what late teen really does? He's always on that computer of his."

Chuck perked up at 'computer'.

"He's a teenager Chuck. His computer is for messaging and memes."

"For what?" Sarah questioned.

"I'll show you," Dick said. "Just as soon as I've unloaded this in the room."

Sarah didn't really care about the memes but Dick was already making his way towards the room and she could tell they were fighting a losing battle.

Dick set up a makeshift bed on the floor and sat down to show them his brothers' social media pages. Sarah learnt a lot of boring facts about the Wayne family that day.

Tim liked computers and schoolwork. There were a couple of photos with other unknown teenagers too; his friends maybe? Tim also conversed with a girl who liked purple. Dick explained that Steph was like a member of the family.

Jason liked 'aesthetics', especially those with blood, destruction or giving out an abandoned vibe.

Damian liked animals and had a lot of pets. Photos of his dog, cat, cow, turkey and what she was certain was a killer whale graced the internet via Damian's phone.

There was a girl, Cass. She had images of ballerinas, fairy tales and photos of herself and the blond, Steph.

Dick's own pages included things Sarah could have guessed at. A love of gymnastics, gushy romance and some computer jokes, often shared with a 'Barbara Gordon'. Although some painting stuff was thrown in there as well.

* * *

Sarah was not surprised that Dick was up whenever she tried to leave the room. No matter what the time was 10pm, 12pm, 3am, he would stir just as she touched the handle.

"Where are you off to?" he would ask.

"Toilet."

"It's the other door."

And he would wait for her to leave the exit and head over to the toilet.

It could have been natural. However, it could have been a plot by Dick to keep her from exploring. If it was the latter, there was no point in confronting him. It would just let him confirm that she knew she was being monitored. She glared at him before going back to sleep. It was always difficult to tell what Bryce was thinking and it seemed the same was true of Dick, despite the smiles and kind words.

* * *

Dick woke, feeling rested in spite of the disturbances through his night. Sarah just couldn't leave well enough alone.

Maybe it would be enough to keep her from wanting to stay?

"Are you going to sleep in here tonight as well?" Sarah asked as Chuck showered in the adjoining bathroom.

"It has been a while since we've seen each other..."

"It's weird, Dick."

Dick shrugged. "I grew up in the circus. We shared a trailer all the time. You're the only one with a problem with it."

"Chuck!" Sarah called out to the closed door.

"It's not that strange, Honey!" Chuck called back through the door.

"See?" Dick responded with a grin. His phone beeped with a message from Barbara. It basically told him what the next move should be if he didn't want the Bartowskis to know his secret. It was sound reasoning but Dick knew she was enjoying watching him squirm. "I guess it doesn't matter though. This evening I'm getting a flight back to New York."

"So suddenly?" Sarah questioned.

"Yeah, seems Barbara might have found a place for Roy and his daughter. I'm to go and do the legwork. She even went ahead and booked tickets for you guys as well."


	16. Chapter 16

They were only an hour from take off and some new criminal decided to make his debut at the airport. Dick couldn't believe that this had happened.

"We need to help!" Chuck said as he watched the balloon themed criminal cause an explosion. The criminal stopped to make a balloon animal for a crying child. The animal then proceeded to cause a mini explosion. Thankfully, security had taken it from her before it could.

"He's blowing things up in an airport. Chuck, I think he'll get taken down without our help," Sarah pointed out.

"Plus, this is Gotham," Dick reminded Chuck that this was the Batman's city.

"I don't care about that! People could still be hurt before he gets here! We should do something!"

"I like you," a deep voice growled from behind them.

There went all Dick's hope that Bruce would just take care of this and not acknowledge them at all.

He glared at the Batman, hoping that Bruce would get the message and leave them alone.

Chuck started breathing quickly. "You're... The Batman!"

"Oh great, a vigilante," Sarah muttered under her breath.

"Should you really be standing here when you could be stopping him?" Dick questioned, pointing at the balloon themed criminal who looked terrified. He had stopped handing out his balloons and had pulled them close to himself, like an explosive shield.

"Of course," Batman growled before leaping into the action.

Chuck was freaking out and refused to move until he saw how the battle ended. It didn't matter that the balloon villain was moments away from fainting just seeing  _the Batman_ , Chuck just had to see the Batman could win.

Dick had an idea. It helped that it was what he felt he should be doing: Evacuating the rest of the people. He and Chuck jumped into professional personas and helped guide people around the airport.

"Just be confident. In a situation like this, people will listen to anyone who sounds like they know what they're doing," Dick advised before they started.

It worked like a charm. Chuck's attention was drawn from the fighting to the task ahead of him.

The criminal was taken down when they weren't even in the room. When they returned, the Batman was gone.

Chuck squealed, still just happy over seeing his idol. "I met the Batman!"

"I'm happy for you," Dick said. The smile Chuck had was contagious. He guessed it hadn't done any harm.

"Although... it's probably a good thing I didn't see the Batcave. I might have had a heart attack right then and there."

"Huh?"

Chuck looked right at Dick and winked. "Bruce Wayne sure does a lot for the city, you know?"

"Of course he knows," Sarah said. "He's Bruce's ward."

"Adopted son." Dick felt it was important to correct after all the trouble Bruce had gone to in order to adopt him as an adult. Wait. That wasn't the important thing at all. He turned to Chuck. "How did you know?"

Chuck gave a nervous laugh. "Well, it took me longer than it should have really. I mean, the secret passages do have a good excuse but it didn't explain why you were using them. And there are a lot of good discussions online. Some I'm sure the Batman himself was helping to fuel."

Dick refrained from telling Chuck that most of those discussions were probably only made up of Bruce's accounts as he discussed the Bruce Wayne is Batman theory with himself. It was supposed to be camouflage and a way of controlling the way information was presented to the public.

"But I think the real evidence is Robin sneaking past the window twice last night and needing to be pulled away by Batman and the Red Hood. You do know that-"

"Yes," Dick responded, cutting Chuck off. Whenever Red Hood was brought up, the conversation could only go in a few directions.

"He's on the most wanted list. Not just the FBI but the CIA would also like to talk to him."

"Chuck," Dick said, dropping his voice to a growl. "Do you really think I'll hand the Red Hood, a vigilante who some people depend on here, to the CIA? He's none of their business."

"That's not what the Intersect thinks." Chuck shrugged. "He really shouldn't let me catch even a glimpse of him."

Sarah had no idea what was going on, aside from Robin watching them. "Did Dick or his family get the allies of the Batman to keep watch over us?"

Chuck gasped. "I guess that was one explanation!" he exclaimed.

Dick shook his head. So Chuck had seen Red Hood and Robin and had theorised, correctly, that they lived in the manor as opposed to the kind of theory someone paranoid like Sarah would come up with? It was too late to mislead him into believing that Sarah was right, Dick's own responses to the conversation told Chuck he was correct.

"You know, Bruce is going to need you to sign a non-disclosure agreement," he said to Chuck instead.

"Seriously? Superheroes have paperwork?"

"Where do you think I learnt how to write mission reports?" Dick countered.

Chuck groaned. "Can I at least explain to Sarah?"

"We'll do it together. After the flight."

Sarah was not impressed with that. She was even less impressed when he found out what Chuck had realised during their short stay.

* * *

Dick didn't need to pick his luggage up so he didn't bother waiting for Chuck and Sarah. They were going to be catching another flight out of New York soon enough anyway.

"Neal!" a voice called out. They corrected themselves a moment later. "Dick!"

Dick paused and looked around. El was the first person he saw as she was smiling and waving at him. Peter was standing next to her and he had been the one who called out.

"I haven't heard Neal in a while," Dick commented as he walked over to them.

"Yeah well, I haven't seen you in a while. I'm going to slip back into old habits," Peter said with a shrug.

"Why are you here?" Dick asked.

"Sarah called us and let us know when your flight was landing. I suspect she knew you would just go your own way," Peter said.

"We're your lift," El said. "And I've already checked with June. She'd love to have you again."

"Even if I was a Fed?" Dick questioned, despite knowing the answer. June was a marvellous woman.

"She said that some of Byron's best friends were cops."

Peter winced. "Honey, a Fed and a cop are somewhat different." He was glad to see Dick wince as well.

"As someone who has been both, I'll tell you that Peter's right. They're different."

El pouted. "Fine. You ask June yourself. But she's expecting us so we're still going."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I'm not 100% happy with this chapter. But, that might be because I couldn't figure out whether I wanted Chuck to figure out about the Bat family and the Wayne Family until I wrote it. So it's probably suffered because of that.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: A slightly longer chapter to finish this story off. This is the Final Chapter.

 

The sun was rising over the buildings of New York city. Dick sipped at his Italian Roast coffee and mused about how much he had missed this sight and smells. Not even the knock at his door phased him.

"Come on, time to go to work!" Peter announced happily as he came in.

Dick placed the cup back onto the table and stared at the FBI agent.

"I don't work for you," he pointed out. "That was Neal."

Peter ignored that. "Come on, there's a couple of cases you might like over at the office. Stolen diamonds, forged passports, the news of Diana's baby."

"The what?" Dick gasped.

"Yep. Diana's decided to have a baby. She's going at it alone and didn't tell anyone until the fertility clinic told her they had succeeded."

Dick immediately remembered his last encounter with the agent. "How far along is she?"

Peter chuckled. "Not that far along. Don't worry, if you had gassed her while pregnant, I would not have stopped her from going to Burbank to punch you."

Dick didn't know how to respond to that. On one hand, he was glad Peter stopped her. But, on the other, had she been pregnant when he gassed her, he would have welcomed the punch. Either way, what was done was done so he decided he should go and say his congratulations.

"Alright, let me go and get dressed."

"Perfect!"

Dick shook his head as he pulled out one of Bryon's old suits. They fit so much better than the stuff back in Gotham. He didn't care what Bruce thought about second-hand items, these suits were classic and Dick was lucky to wear them.

* * *

It was in the car that Peter finally remembered to address something which had been bugging him since the previous day.

"By the way, being a vigilante is not the same as a cop."

"Where's this coming from?" Dick asked, twirling his hat in his hands.

"You said you had been both a Fed and a cop to El yesterday. Being a vigilante doesn't count as a cop."

Dick chuckled. "I was actually a police officer for a while, Peter. Plus, I'm not the only vigilante who knows what it's like to be a cop."

He had actually been a cop? Peter didn't respond for a while.

"Do you do anything but work?" Peter questioned. "How could you be a cop, a vigilante, a spy and half the people we've connected to Neal?"

"Well, I didn't try to do all at once," Dick pointed out. "I became a cop a while after I got Chuck kicked out of Stanford. I was a spy before that but took a short break until I was contacted by another spy who wanted me to investigate the CIA. I had already lost my job as a cop by then so I agreed."

Peter looked disgusted. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but you are way over qualified for White Collar."

"So are you. And Hughes," Dick responded with a smile. "Sometimes it's for the love of the work."

"Or because you're an adrenaline junkie."

"Have you been talking to Sarah?" Dick questioned as she had called him that shortly after learning about Nightwing and the Batman family.

Peter raised an eyebrow. He hadn't but he wasn't surprised that someone else also thought that.

* * *

Stepping into the White Collar office felt almost as good as returning home. Dick smiled and greeted everyone loudly and people greeted him back. Some called him 'Neal' and some called him 'Dick'. It seemed Peter had spread word about his identity.

"So, the adoptive son of Bruce Wayne finally graces us with his presence," Diana commented as she glared at him. "Things certainly seem different for the rich, don't you think?"

Dick winced. The biting tone was enough for him to tell she was mad. No detective skills required.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry for gassing you and running away. But, can you blame me?"

"Not really. It just proved that the CIA can't train it's agents. I noticed no one's calling you Bryce."

"Bryce Larkin is dead," Dick stated with a shrug. "And someone should really tell everyone that Neal Caffrey doesn't exist anymore."

"Such a shame. I'm sure Neal would have loved to meet my baby."

"He did have that 'Fun Uncle' vibe to him at times." Great. Now Jones was joining in too.

"Guys, I'm right here," Dick said flatly. While he wouldn't mind this talk outside of the White Collar office, where anyone could overhear, he was certain that everyone here knew he used to work here under the name 'Neal Caffrey'.

"Really? I thought Neal gassed his protection and ran off, never to be seen again," Jones said.

"Why am I here again? I could be hanging out with June and drinking Italian Roast Coffee."

"Because Peter bribed you with mysteries and shiny things," Diana pointed out. She chuckled. "And as long as you come to the baby shower, I guess I can forgive you. Bring Mozzie too. He's fun."

"No he's not," Jones muttered under his breath.

* * *

Nightwing was about to break into a suspected smugglers' base of operations when he noticed a familiar car. He dropped down from the roof and slipped in, hands already up in the 'no weapons' position so that he didn't startle the occupant.

Peter reached for his weapon as the vigilante slipped into the seat before it fully registered who was there.

"You've got to be kidding me," he grumbled.

Nightwing grinned at the FBI agent. "Come on Peter, you have to admit, this is funny. We're both watching the same person."

"You're not just here to watch."

"Well, that's rude," the vigilante playfully pouted. "I've been shadowing this guy all day in order to figure out if this is his only base of operations. And I'll be watching him for some time yet before deciding if I'll move in. We vigilantes don't just jump in and beat people up. There's real police work involved. I would know."

"Still can't believe you were a cop," Peter huffed. He had checked and even spoken to Bludhaven officers who had worked with Dick. Even though the kid had gotten in on recommendation after not getting enough hours in the training academy, he had been one of the better ones of the force. Peter was not surprised that Dick had been considered almost incorruptible. Neal had worked for his own sense of justice and hurting people or accepting money to turn the other way as some police officers did was not his style at all.

"I don't suppose I can convince you to not worry about this place," Nightwing mused.

"Not happening," Peter responded automatically.

"I guess I could kick up a fuss and you can go in under probable cause or something."

Peter glared at the vigilante. This was a little too much bending of the law for his liking.

"I refuse."

Nightwing shrugged and kicked his feet up on the console.

"I guess I'll join you then." He reached for the radio.

Peter slapped his hand away. "Fine. But no touching the radio and put your feet down."

* * *

Diana gave birth to little Theo in the strangest circumstances. She had been using the extra time off she had to start looking into Nightwing after rumours around the office said that Peter was meeting up with the vigilante. She found him talking to Peter while on a stakeout. Peter seemed friendly with the costumed stranger and Diana wondered if Peter really was on the side of vigilantism. But no, Peter shook his head and the vigilante left.

Diana followed Nightwing. Contrary to everything she had learnt about the acrobatic, bat-raised vigilante, Nightwing slipped down into the sewers instead of up onto the rooftops.

She went into labour while following Nightwing through the underground tunnels. Dizzy from contractions, she managed to find a furnished room.

"What the-" she questioned in shock, echoing the sentiment of the occupant of the room.

Mozzie stared at her in shock. "Lady Suit? What are you doing here?" He noticed her sweating and crouched posture. "Are you alright?"

"Baby's coming," she ground out.

"What? Oh no, I can't deal with this!" Mozzie panicked and shouted, "Dick!"

Dick slipped into the room, stopping short when he noticed Diana. It only took a quick explanation before he helped Mozzie deliver the baby, who was later dubbed 'Theodore' in the hospital. The name was Mozzie's birth name as well. Had he not been there, Diana suspected she would have been giving birth alone in the dark and cold.

She later scolded Dick for not noticing she had been following him. He sheepishly admitted that he had noticed her following him on the ground, which was why he had gone underground. He hadn't thought she would follow him down there with her belly as big as it had been.

* * *

The phone buzzed in his pocket. Dick got up and made his way out of the room so he could take the call without kid's shows running in the background.

"Uncle Dick?" Lian questioned the moment he moved.

Dick mentioned that his phone was ringing and he needed to answer it. The little girl pouted and huffed. Jason snorted and commented that Dick wasn't fit for being 'best uncle' while Roy tried to explain to his daughter that some phone calls had to be answered.

The name 'Chuck' had appeared on the screen. There was no way Dick was ignoring this call.

"Hi Chuck."

"Hi Bryce, I mean Dick."

Dick sighed. Not Chuck too. He guessed he had no one to blame but himself. "You would think agents and spies would be better at keeping someone's name straight."

"You expect it on the job, not in your private life with your friends."

"Maybe you don't."

"Sorry, not all of us grew up with vigilantes changing their names all the time."

Dick raised his eyebrows at that. Chuck sounded upset.

"Is everything okay?"

"No. Casey and Sarah agreed to do a non-CIA mission. Beckman owed someone a favour. But, I've lot contact with them and I'm worried."

Dick understood. "Alright, what do you need from me? I can get a flight as soon as possible or I can put some feelers out here to see what I can find out. You'll be surprised how much information makes it into New York."

"I'm sure I would be. It's the kind of place that keeps your attention after all." There was relief in Chuck's tone. It cheered Dick up as it meant Chuck was relaxing and ready to do something instead of worrying. "I would like it if you came here. Beckman's trying to get a lock on their last known location and I'm going out as soon as she gets word."

"Sounds good." Dick hung up. He would text Chuck the details of his flight and expected ETA when he knew more. "Hey, Jay?"

"What do you want?" Jason demanded to know. He had pulled Lian into his lap to clap along with her to the song on TV.

"Can you take over my patrol routes for a while?"

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Who called you?"

"Chuck."

"You're not going back to the CIA are you?" Roy questioned in a worried voice.

"No. I don't do my best work with them-"

"Of course not. They hold you back," Jason snorted.

Dick refrained from agreeing vocally. "But Chuck works enough out of the CIA mould that working with him should be fine. We're just going to rescue his team. I just need someone to monitor a couple of things here."

"Fine," Jason agreed. "But keep in mind I'm also Lian's on call babysitter."

That was fine. There wasn't anything crime related which required immediate attention. Nightwing and associates could miss a patrol or two without the world ending.

That was one job down.

Dick called Peter next.

"I won't be in on Monday."

"Why?"

"Something's come up with Chuck."

Peter groaned on the other end. "I don't know which bugs me more; the spy business or the vigilante business."

"I would think the vigilante, especially since it's technically illegal."

"Dick," Peter sighed in that grumpy tone of his. "There's more to it than that. I'll just be glad that it's not me dealing with the moral quagmire."

"You'll let Diana and Jones know that I won't be in for the week, at least?"

"Diana's going to be heartbroken."

"No, she's not. If anything, I think she'll enjoy the extra work. So will Mozzie." Mozzie had taken up being Diana's babysitter. He loved spending time with his little namesake to the point where he had chased away any other applicants.

"Go save the world. I'll just stay here and make sure we can find this week's art thief."

"Thanks Peter," Dick said, wondering if he should invite Peter along for a spy mission sometime.

"Don't thank me. I'm serious about the art thief. Jones is checking the site out today and I'll get the report tomorrow so I can start looking for suspects."

Dick promised that Peter could call him if he needed help, even though he suspected Peter could do this without him.

It was spy time.


End file.
